The Charm of Dynamite
by EvilNovel
Summary: KyoxOCxMori Rated M for: Language,crude/sexual humor,possible lemon to victor. An odd girl finds her way into the lives of the hosts through Haruhi. She teaches them about the other ways to live life and has a strange connection to the two "dark" hosts.
1. Meeting a Walking Explosive

**A/N: Okay, I finally got this up. just so you guys get a clearer picture of what the OC looks like. Think Roxas from KH2.Yea. The song meant for the beginning of this chapter is "Slowmotion" by Blindside.**

**Disclaimer: I'm only writing this once. Anything that seems familiar to the anime or manga of Ouran High School Host Club belongs to Hatori Bisco. Not me. Although I wish I owned Mori. I only own my OC, friends, and family. thanks.**

**ENJOY!!**

**Chp 1: Meeting a Walking Explosive**

The bell of the Ouran clock tower rang, signaling the end of after school activities. Groups of prestige students in the blue jacket suit and yellow buttercup dress uniforms slowly made their way out of the building. They conversed in groups as they awaited the arrival of their transportation.

All the talking dimmed as the students heard something loud coming down the street. Someone had their car radio playing loud as it was heard from several blocks away. Talk about hearing problems. Suddenly, a squeal of rubber on cement overpowered the radio as a neon green and midnight blue convertible Porsche made a stop right in front of the entrance gate.

Everyone turned their attention towards the car some in curiosity, others in annoyance. There were two people in the car. The oldest, who looked hardly over twenty, was behind the wheel and dressed in an almost Bohemian style. He had a messy shoulder-length mane of chocolate. Bright, electric blue eyes shone from under his bangs as he turned off the engine; a cigarette hanging from his lips.

The younger one was slightly more delicate looking. He looked to be about the age of any high school student. He had the same electric blue eyes but had short, spiky, layered, messy honey blonde hair and two rings pierced into the left side of his bottom lip, accompanied by the many studs on his ears. As the car was stopped, he leaned forward and took his Ipod out of its docking station by the car's radio. After unbuckling his seatbelt, he put the cord, which was connected to the oversized neglected headset around his neck, into the adapter hole of the Ipod. Pressing play, the previous song that once sang from the car's stereo could now be heard ringing through the headset.

Once he seemed situated, the blonde opened the door and stood up. He was about five foot, seven inches and was thin but muscular and slightly lanky. He wore a slightly baggy light blue button up tee with a black tie hanging messily from the collar. He had a few random pins from English bands on the chest pocket. A pair of sea green, blue, and black plaid pants and black high top converse that stuck out from the bottom hem.

Suddenly a dreamy sigh, that overpowered the wind itself, emitted from the many girls around the courtyard. Whispers of the newcomer wafted through the air.

"Who is that?"

"I don't know, but he's so cute."

"Do you think he's a new student?"

"I hope so."

The girls all strangely began to float after the boy, who made his way to the main building of the school, seemingly not realizing anything.

* * *

He made his way up to the desk in the strangely ornate office. He pressed pause on his Ipod, out of respect, as he looked around. He casually moved his gaze behind him to the open door, only to catch a glimpse of a few girls sneak back behind the door. A ghost of a smirk ran across his face.

'_This soon?'_

He turned back around and approached the desk. A young girl in the same buttercup dress as the other females had sat with her back to the desk and was sifting through a file cabinet. He leaned his forearms against the desk and balanced his weight on it; watching the girl continues mumble to herself.

"Excuse me."

The girl didn't turn but just sighed exasperatedly. "Sorry, school hours are closed. You should be heading home."

"Oh, no, it's not that. You see, I'm the new scholarship student and I was told to come around this time to pick up my schedule and uniforms. So here I am."

The girl finally turned around, a glare on her thin frame glasses, before she focused on the other person in the room. Suddenly, her eyes widened and her mouth hung open. "Uh, w-well, I can get it for you. Um, name please."

She turned to face a set of files to her left, hoping to hide the crimson shade that had invaded her face. The youth at the desk just smiled slightly as the sound of the door creaking open slowly reached his ears. Carefully looking over his shoulder, he noticed a now larger group of girls look on in anticipation as the words left his lips.

"Takeuchi Aoi."

* * *

Aoi made his way back to the car, a set of male uniforms under his arm and a schedule sticking out of his back pocket. The group of girls was still dodging behind bushes and trees, hoping not to be seen. Aoi just chuckled softly and shook his head as he finally neared the vehicle.

"Sora!!" The brunette who had been reclining into a nap in the front seat, jumped up at the sound of his name. "Wha?! Who?! Noodle?! Oh……what now, Aoi-pii?"

"I need you to hold my stuff. I still have to go get cugina and she wanted me to meet her friends." He shrugged at Aoi's demand and reclined once again as the blonde tossed his uniforms in the back seat.

Turning around he noticed that the girls had all moved on to little groups and making it seem like they were having interesting conversations. Chuckling softly, he made his way to the main entrance to the music building, fully aware of every set of female eyes on him.

Once inside the front hall, Aoi took in the beautiful, ornate double stairs, the expensive vases full to the brim with flowers, the high glass windows that gave a great perspective of the school campus, the crystal chandelier, and the strange pastel pink on the walls.

'_Well, that throws it off.'_

He made his way up the stairs, trying to remember the directions his cousin gave him to this …Third Music Room.

'_Well, shit. I almost had it, too.'_

A tired look spread across his face. Defeat is so merciless. He perked up hearing voices coming from his left. Looking over he saw three girls talking to each other excitedly.

A wide smile grew on his face as he found his answer. Smoothly waltzing up to the group of girls, he noticed as they all stood frozen, watching his every move and that there was a splash of crimson on their faces.

"Hello ladies, I was wondering if you could help me with something." A charming smirk formed on his lips.

"Y-yes?" The young red-head in the front spoke in a quiet, shaky voice.

His smirk changed to a soft smile. The poor girl might have a heart attack. "I'm trying to find the Third Music Room. Can you point me in the right direction please?"

The three females exchanged glances before smiling brightly at him and nodding.

* * *

He bowed in thanks at the girls. Straightening up, he waved softly with a goofy smile on his face as he watched the girls turn the corner.

Aoi turned to the big, **pink** door he now stood in front of while listening to the soft giggles from the girls as they ran down the hall. He took a deep breath as he reached out and turned the knob. He suddenly shivered slightly.

'_Why do I have a bad feeling about this?'_

He pulled back, opening the door only to be blinded by a bright light. Once his eyes adjusted, he peered in. His eyes suddenly widened in panic as he saw Rose petals flying towards him.

He ducked and rolled into the room, sliding into the room backwards on his rear. A startled look streaked his face as he was breathing heavily from his seat on the floor.

"If pink walls weren't bad enough, they got attacking rose petals now! What next, killer marshmallows?! Jeez, how much scarier can this school get?" He sighed.

"Sorry, the Host Club is closed. Try again, later." A pair of identical voices reached his ears simultaneously.

"Wha?" Leaning his head backwards all the way, he caught sight of 6 upside down handsome young men in……togas?

He slowly turned back, stood up, and turned to stare blankly at the host club. The hosts stood there, watching the strange boy as they waited for a reaction from him.

Suddenly his face dropped to a dead pan expression. "Yep. Male prostitutes. It just got scarier."

"**EH?!"**

Aoi watched curiously as the tall blonde of the group went to sulk in a corner, the red-headed twins went to comfort him, the bespectacled brunette kept his cool gaze fixed on Aoi, the short blonde started to tear up as the tallest brunette comforted him while still watching Aoi as well.

Aoi sweat dropped at their reactions and slowly started to slink backwards towards the door.

A soft laughter caught everyone's attention as they turned to face a petite brown-haired girl in a boy's uniform.

"Aoi-chan, you haven't changed. Only you would think that way about these idiots."

Smiling wildly, Aoi launched himself across the floor and hugged the poor girl's head to his chest, tightly. "HARU-CHAN!! Did you miss me? Oh, what am I saying? Of course you missed me! I'm too loveable!!"

Haruhi continued laughing as Aoi held her out at arms length and smiled.

Suddenly a hand was plastered over Aoi's face and pushed him away from Haruhi, causing him to stumble back and into a strong torso. Large hands came down on his shoulders. Looking up Aoi saw the tallest male watching him with surprisingly warm onyx eyes. Suddenly a little fluff of blonde popped up on his shoulder. A pair of warm brown eyes stared at him innocently.

'_What the hell?'_

"HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY PRECIOUS, INNOCENT DAUGHTER?!"

Bringing his gaze back down, he stared blankly at a fuming blonde male with purple eyes……who happened to be smothering an annoyed Haruhi.

"Tamaki-sempai, get off!!" Haruhi glared at him as she pulled herself from his attachment.

Tamaki started to tear up and spoke in a shaky voice. "But, he was molesting you…."

Haruhi sighed. "No, you were. Besides," She pointed to the new comer to the group, who still looked confused as hell. "Aoi-chan is my cousin."

Hearing that bit of new information, everyone turned to the blonde still in Mori's hands.

"Yo." Aoi waved slightly.

The red-headed twins came up to him and smiled widely, their golden eyes twinkling with mischief. "Hitachiin Hikaru-"

"-And Kaoru."

""Nice to meet you!!""

Aoi's cerulean eyes swam back and forth between the two multiple times, taking in even the slightest differences, before smiling similarly.

Aoi got startled as the dramatic blonde from before pushed the twins out of the way and took his hand in a friendly handshake. "I'm Suoh Tamaki. It's a pleasure to meet a family member of my beloved daughter."

"Daughter?" Aoi stared at him boredly. "I know my uncle well enough to know you're not him. What are you? A stalker? And what's your deal with pushing people out of the way?"

Tamaki went into his corner of woe as the twins started laughing hysterically. "He got you there, my lord!"

"I'm liking this guy more and more!"

Aoi stared at them curiously with a small smile, until feeling something tug at his wrist. "Hmm?"

Looking down, the small blonde boy with chocolate eyes, stared at him warmly and clutching a pink bunny to his chest. "I'm Haninozuka Mitsukuni, but everyone calls me Hunny for short. And this is Usa-chan."

Aoi smiled warmly and patted the bunny's head before playfully mussing up Hunny's blonde tufts.

Hunny giggled. Suddenly a thought occurred to him as a light blush rose on his face. He faced Aoi again and shyly played with his bunny's ears. "Aoi-chan, you're a girl, aren't you?"

Aoi's eyes widened in surprise before they softened once again. "Yep, how'd you know?"

Everyone watched in amazement and curiosity. Aoi was a girl?! **And how did Hunny know?!**

"Actually, Takashi told me. He said you move like a female martial artist and he's right. I noticed you're movements, no matter how sporadic, were fluid and precise." And he said all that with a childish smile on. Pink flowers and all.

Aoi started to giggle. That's right….giggle! **SHE** finally turned to the tall brunette behind her, whom hadn't taken his eyes off of her since she walked in. "I'm guessing you're Takashi, huh?"

He nodded.

"Morinozuka, I believe." She smiled softly.

His eyes widened at how she had known his last name so easily. Who was this girl?

She stood up straight and bowed at a perfectly 90 degree angle, before straightening and placing her hands on her hips. A wide smile stayed plastered on her face.

Suddenly, a spark of recognition lit in his eyes. He knew someone who always did that when they met. A soft smile barely crept on his lips as he brought up a hand to pat her head lightly.

"Takeuchi Aoi: 3rd and final child of Takeuchi Rokuro and Shinju. Second in line to Take Electronics Inc. and the Shinzo Dojo in Hokkaido. Age: 16. Gender: Female. Height: 5' 7". Weight: 112 lbs. Blood Type: AB. Heritage: Japanese and Italian. Recently transferred to Ouran through scholarship and was registered as a boy."

A smooth voice caught her ears, describing her info way too well. Feeling the large hand drop from her head, she turned around to notice the only host she hadn't properly met sitting at a table, watching the screen on his laptop.

He, too, had deep black hair but his was slicked down and kept neat as opposed to the other brunette's spiky-short hair. He wore oval, thin framed glasses that kept a glare on them and hid his eyes from view.

Aoi smirked lightly as an image of recognition filled her mind. "Actually the Italian comes from my grandmother. I didn't expect an Ootori to be here, too. You all resemble your dad quite a bit, you know?"

The Ootori turned his head to her, allowing the glare from his glasses to dissipate and allow his eyes to be seen, wide with surprise, which was quickly covered by a mask of calm. "How do you know my father?"

Everyone's eyes were on the strange girl once again as her smirk widened. "Come on, kid. Take Elec. does business with your family's hospitals. They supply most of the equipment used. Not to mention my dad knew yours since college, as well as Suoh-san." A wide, almost evil smile made its way onto her face.

"Anyways…" Her smile suddenly fell to dawn a confused look as she tilted her head to the right slightly. "Which one are you?"

His face went back to its calculating look as he stood up and made his way to stand in front of her. He held out his hand to her and used his sweet host smile on her. "Kyouya: third son."

She visibly grimaced at his smiled and looked him up and down warily. With a stoic expression and without taking his hand, she nodded her head slightly. "Nice to meet you. And don't EVER smile at me like that, unless you mean it."

A slight twitch took over his eyebrow as he watched her turn back to her cousin. _'What is this girl's problem?! I tried being nice. Making friends with a future Takeuchi leader would be profitable, but all I got was a nod?! Who is she?!'_

The taller female leaned on top of Haruhi's head and looked down at her with a cocky smile. "Hey Haru, did you get shorter?" She chuckled as her cousin gave her a half-hearted glare.

"No, you just won't stop growing. Share some of your tall!!" Both girls started laughing. Everyone secretly smiled at them (except Kyouya, who was still inwardly ranting.) They seemed more like sisters, rather than cousins.

"By the way, Aoi-chan, what are you doing here? I was actually going to introduce you to the host club this weekend, because I was sure they'd follow me to your house." She turned an exasperated look at the hosts, who were pretending to do something else. Main word: Pretending.

"Host club? Is that what this is called?"

"Aoi, don't get distracted!!" Haru yelled annoyed.

"Eh? Sorry. Well, I'm gonna be a new student here on Monday. Didn't you hear Kyo-ichi say it?" Aoi shrugged, ignoring Kyouya clearly glaring at her in annoyance to the uncalled for nickname.

Haruhi's eyes widened. "But I thought you told your dad that you didn't want to come here. Why leave Shiroken?"

"I got a full scholarship here and I might as well come here if it's for free." She smiled widely in response.

"How'd you get a scholarship?"

"I should be asking you that." Aoi gave her a pointed expression.

"Nani? Why me?!" This caught the attention of the rest of the club as they turned to listen.

"Well, about a week ago, Sora and I just decided to laze around the house and just do nothing…..what? Don't look at me like that." She pointed at Haruhi who happened to be staring at her with a look that clearly read Lazy Asses.

"Anyways, we were just watching a movie, when the bell rang. Watari beat us to it and answered. He said some gentlemen came to speak with me. I thought it was like Konzen-sensei or Okibi-kun but instead it was Suoh-san."

"My father?!"

Aoi looked up in surprise to see the whole club seated on a couch nearby listening intently, except for Kyouya, who stood at a distance leaning on a pillar. It looked like they were really interested now.

She sighed and turned back to Haruhi. "Yep, your father. He stood at my door with a smile on his face. He thought I was a guy, just because I felt like wearing some of Sora's clothes. What can I say, they're comfy. Apparently, he found one of my stories that didn't have my alias yet in the hall of his school and he thought I was talented. If I remember correctly, he said, 'Such passion, romance, drama, action, humor, even tragedy! It's a perfect story!' Strange thing was that the story was Projectiles and Promises. I only made one copy of that story so far and the only person who had it….."

Haruhi gulped. "…was me."

"Was you."

Haruhi hung her head in shame. "I didn't mean to lose it. I know how much you hate the whole stealing other people's work and stuff…"

"Don't worry about it. I got it back and got a scholarship out of it. No big deal." Aoi smiled reassuringly at her cousin, who returned the gesture.

Suddenly, something occurred to Haruhi. "What about Aku, Itsuki, and Yuri? What about Nozomu, Shuuhei, Masaki, Zetsu and the others? How did they take you leaving?"

Aoi shook her head as she chuckled, thinking about her friends. "I swear, seeing grown young men cry like that was some scary shit. Yuri had to calm them down. I can tell she was about to kick their heads in, too."

Haru sweat dropped. "But Shiroken High School is like 10 minutes from here. They can visit you everyday if they wanted to. Besides, you live only a short walk away from most of them."

Aoi started laughing. "I know! They're just a bunch of dramatic losers!"

Haruhi joined her. "I see. They haven't changed, have they?"

"Nope. I'm glad, too. If they did, they'd be boring!"

Aoi stood suddenly and turned to the guys as a thought came to mind. They jumped, startled by her sudden movement. This girl sure did go from one thing to another quickly.

"Hey, do you guys mind if I ask you something?"

"Of course, Princess." Tamaki replied as he grabbed her by the chin lightly.

"Riiiight…." She scooted out of Tamaki's grip. "Anyways, does this school happen to have a lot of Otaku girls?"

The twins leaned on each of her shoulders. Hikaru on the right and Kaoru on her left. ""What makes you say that?""

"Well…" She walked over to the club's door and took hold of the handle. "This."

Opening the door, she revealed a huge crowd of Ouran school girls with bright blushes on their faces as they swooned over the blonde at the door.

"Look, there he is!!"

"Aoi-kun, are you gonna be a host?"

"Is that his name?"

"Isn't he so 'Bad Boy-ish'?"

"MOEEEE!!"

"Excuse me, ladies." Aoi said charmingly smirking at them as she closed the door.

"See?" She jerked her thumb towards the door. She eyed the other seven weirdly. "What?"

They all stood with a face of pure shock, mouth hung open, eyes wide, and faces pale. Even Kyouya's eyes were wide……but that's about it.

"Wow, Aoi-chan! You're already popular here!!" Hunny called out in excitement.

Haruhi chuckled and shook her head. "You haven't even officially started school yet and you already have a fan club."

Aoi sighed dramatically and hung off of Haruhi's shoulder solemnly. "Story of my life."

The two girls again joined each other in laughter. Looking over at the clock, Aoi realized how long she had been there.

"Crap. We should go, Haruhi. I left Sora on hibernation mode in the front seat. He's probably got cobweb accessories by now!"

"Right." Haruhi grabbed her bag and turned to wave at the guys. "See you guys."

Aoi stood in front of the now empty, open door and flourished a dramatic bow. "Farewell gentlemen! Until later morrow!" She smiled wildly, her lip rings glinting in the light, before waving at them and leaving with her cousin.

* * *

The Third Music Room stood silent as the hosts sat idle in the afterglow of the strange girl that left with their seventh host. Some feared that any movement or sound would shatter the strange feeling of joy or irritation they were in. Her very presence was contradicting in itself. She made them understand yet confused them at the same time.

The twins, being the devils they were, broke the silence together. ""We like her."" They called wearing mischievous smiles.

Tamaki gasped and looked on in horror at the twins' new found happiness. "She's a witch! She's set some sort of spell on you! Perhaps she had help from Nekozawa and is helping him exact revenge on us!!"

"Revenge for what, milord?" Hikaru stared impatiently at the dramatic blonde.

Kyouya was the one who answered for the now cowering Tamaki, who had a wreath of garlic around his neck. "He stepped on Beleeznof again on our way to lunch today. And Tamaki, garlic is used to ward off vampires, not witches."

"Then, she's a vampire!! How else could she entrance the young maidens of Ouran so easily?!"

Kyouya sighed as he readjusted his glasses. "She isn't a vampire. It's midday. And I was meaning to discuss with you about her. How about we make her join?"

"She'd be a good addition, ne Takashi?" Hunny smiled down at his tall dark-haired cousin, who was carrying him on his back.

"Yeah." He nodded slowly.

"Then, she can eat cakie with us!!" The blonde smiled even wider at Mori, who had a thoughtful look on his face.

Mori just nodded absentmindedly,

The twins cheered at the idea. ""Good thinking, sempai!!""

"Hey, Kaoru?"

"Yes, Hikaru?"

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Adopting her as a sister?"

"Perfect….we could be triplets!"

Tamaki pulled Kyouya down to sit with him as they spoke quietly away from the others. "What's with the sudden change, Kyouya? If I didn't know any better, I would say you seemed quite peeved by the way she spoke to you."

Kyouya sighed as he picked up his glasses slightly to massage the bridge of his nose. "I'll live, I happen to be fond of challenges. Besides Tamaki, having her around might help with Haruhi."

He blinked a few times in confusion. "How so?"

"Having another girl around may help in bringing out Haruhi's feminine side. Not to mention, how close the two seemed to be is an important variable."

Tamaki watched the calculating mask his friend wore carefully. _'But what are you hoping to gain from this, my friend.'_

His face changed into a determined smirk as he stood up tall, hands on his hips. "So it shall be. Takeuchi Aoi will be our newest host!"

A cheer erupted from all the hosts except the two dark-haired young men in the room, who both stood stoic and hiding their true excitement.

Warm onyx eyes watched the trees outside sway from side to side, tickling the sky. _'Could it really be her?'_

Cold ebony orbs hidden behind thin frames watched his colleagues celebrate. _'She would be good to have around. Having a future generation Takeuchi as a friend would please father. Although I must give her credit.'_ He smirked slightly, an almost invisible one as he thought of how she actually got a reaction out of him. _'She's interesting.'_

**A/N: Aoi and her family sometimes will speak Italian to each other and if I ever actually put any Italian words I'll give you a translation down here. Except when it'll be full conversations I'll use "subtitles" lol. That way you won't have to keep scrolling down.**

**There was one Italian word in this chapter.**

**Cugina/o: means cousin.**

**Tell me what you think.**


	2. A Cautionary Song

**A/N: -bows apologetically- I'm so sorry you guys!! I apologize for how long it took me to put this one out. My mind went blank about half way through and it was difficult for me to put what I wanted to happen in words! Not too mention all the stuff I had to set up for school kept me busy. ARGHH!! My legs are asleep! TT**

**Anyways yea I hope you guys enjoy this one. Have fun reading. The song for this chapter is "You'll Find A Way" by Santogold.**

Chapter Two

**A Cautionary Song**

"So what did you think about it?"

"I liked it. It was a little …uh…adult though."

"Well it's based off of real life romances; you know I'm not too into fairytales."

Two young girls walked side by side on the sidewalk enjoying the outdoors. The shorter of the two had her short brown hair pinned to the side with gray bobby pins. A light casual coat kept the slightly icy fall air at bay. A pair of stretch denim pants formfitting her legs and a pair of tennis shoes.

"You have a point, but it was just a simple kiss….."

"Well how many simple kisses do you see now-a-days? Everywhere you go it's just snog-fest galore!"

The tall blonde one's usually spiky-gravity defying hair was down and fell in short multiple layers around her face: a messy tangle of them falling into her eyes. A small smile graced her face as the two studs under her bottom lip winked at her cousin. A forest green form-fitting tank top with a black smiley face spray-painted on the side which was slightly covered by an over-sized black and white striped hoodie. A silver chain held three dog tags that hung between the usual small breasts that both females seemed to be cursed with. A pair of dark denim skinny pants and black and white skate shoes finished her ensemble.

Haruhi sighed and gave the blonde an exasperated look. "Okay, okay. I get it."

Aoi smiled at her victory, while her cousin just rolled her eyes with a small smile on her face. "I WIN!!" She yelled out excitedly causing several bystanders to stare.

A sweat drop made its way down Haruhi's cheek as she pulled her excited cousin into a near by park. She kept a small hope that there weren't too many people, just in case Aoi decided to unconsciously draw more attention.

Luckily for her, it was near empty.

Sighing, Aoi flopped into one of the swings at the playground and looked up at her cousin. "So about this host club…"

"Yea?" Haruhi sat in the swing next to her, a questioning look on her face.

"They do know you're a girl, right?"

The brunette's eyes widen slightly. "Of course!" Her expression suddenly changed into a dead pan look. "You apparently know the Ootori family somehow, so you must know they're habit of being nosey. Kyouya was the first to find out. Actually, I think he knew from the beginning."

"Big surprise there." Sarcasm dripped from every word that left Aoi's lips. "So they make you…..hit on girls? That's the point of a host club, right?"

"Not hit on them, per se. It's more like we just give them our company."

"Uh-huh." Aoi gave Haruhi a skeptical look.

Haruhi sighed at her cousin's dirty imagination. "It's not like that. Girls come in and pay for the time they want to spend with their 'type'."

"So……….you whore yourselves."

"No, we don't-"Haruhi continued to argue, but was interrupted by her cousin.

"Girls pay money to spend time with good-looking guys. They might as well just yell, 'You! Dance for my money!'" Aoi yelled out in a dramatic sophisticated voice while pointing at Haruhi.

She just laughed at her cousin's antics. Growing up with her made Haruhi immune to her insanity. But she had a point. "I guess…it is kind of like whoring," Haruhi looked up with an index finger on her chin, contemplating this new thought. "Just not as dirty."

"Topic change!" Aoi startled her cousin slightly as she raised her hand up high with a goofy smile on her face. "Explain this 'type' thing."

"Oh. Well, you know how girls go for different kind of guys?" She continued after seeing Aoi nod. "It's the same concept there, too."

"Ah, so what type are you?" The blonde raised an eyebrow at her.

"The natural type."

"Natural?"

"I mean, I don't even do anything special, really. I just conversate like I normally do and serve tea and then the girls swoon and blush! I just don't get what they see!"

Haruhi looked over at her cousin who was watching her a little too closely; a contemplating expression on her face. Haruhi just stared back, confused. "What?"

After a few seconds, Aoi finally blinked and just shook her head. "Nope, don't see it either. You look pretty normal to me."

"Well, you're my cousin and you know I'm a girl! Why would you find me attractive?!" She gave an irritated glare at the other female, who just shrugged and waved her hand dismissively.

"Yea, yea, so what are the other guys branded as?"

"Well," Haruhi thought about the other labels she, herself, had just learned recently. "Tamaki is the 'Princely' type. He uses lame pick up lines and gets in the girls' personal bubbles."

"That explains his flourishness and how he slaughters Shakespearian lines. To be honest, I thought he was gay when I first saw him." The blonde chuckled slightly at the memory of the exaggerate male.

"Then, there are the twins. They are considered the 'little devil' type. They like to pull pranks and get bored very easily."

"No wonder why I liked them from the beginning." Aoi smiled wildly at the thought of the havoc she could create with these new additions.

A sigh escaped her cousin's lips. "I figured you would."

"Ok, who next?"

"Kyouya is considered the 'cool' type for his calm demeanor, but you saw it too, ne?"

"You mean the mask? Oh yeah. It slipped." Aoi smirked.

"That's actually the one in few times I've seen it come undone." Haruhi thought back to how he reacted to her cousin and the way she spoke.

"I'm hoping to rip it off. It annoys me when people hide things." Haruhi looked up and saw a strangely determined glimmer in her cousin's cerulean eyes.

"Anyways…" Haruhi inwardly heaved a sigh as the look on her cousin's face went back to its normal carefree, curious expression with the new distraction. "Hunny and Mori are cousins. They don't really go anywhere without the other."

Aoi raised her eyebrows slightly but nodded for Haruhi to continue.

"Hunny is what's called 'Loli-shota type'. It's the cute factor."

"I can see why. Are you sure the kid's a senior and didn't switch places with his brother?"

"I ask myself that everyday." A sudden curious look appeared on Haruhi's face. "Hunny has a brother?"

Aoi just smiled sheepishly and waved another dismissive hand. "Nevermind. Continue, please?"

"Yeah….anyways. Mori. He is considered the 'Wild Type'."

"WHAT?! Okay, now that one really confuzzles the mind. He's just so fucking….reserved, shy almost! _Che cazzo_!" Aoi's face was somewhere stuck between shock and confusion.

"Again, one of the world's many mysteries we may never find out."

"Maybe these new friends of yours are the new Pandora's box." Aoi chuckled as Haruhi just rolled her eyes. "Mori's smile might cause a crack in the Earth!! While Tamaki's silence will bring a plague to the people! And Kyouya's laugh will bring forth the apocalypse!"

Haruhi couldn't help the light laughter that was rising at her cousin's display of the end of the world. _'These guys __**would**__ probably destroy the world.'_

"I'm just glad they didn't find me this weekend. It would have been hell trying to make them go away."

"HARUHI!! AOI!!"

A sense of doom washed over the two girls as both were each tackled by a blonde and a red head: Hikaru and Tamaki on Haruhi and Kaoru and Hunny on Aoi.

Face down on the sandy floor of the playground Aoi groaned out to Haruhi. "Is this normal?"

Haruhi was starting to get red in the face with anger. "Unfortunately." She mumbled through clenched teeth. "GET OFF!!"

Her yell was powerful enough to send not only her assailants flying off her but also Aoi's burdens. Kyouya and Mori, who stood calmly behind the mass of teens, had felt the wind blow from the out burst. Mori randomly caught Hunny in mid air as he flew by.

The rest didn't land so gently. BLAM!

Aoi got up and dusted her pants off and readjusted her hoodie. Once situated, she helped her irritated cousin stand up.

The brunette female turned a heavy glare to the group of males who interrupted her time with her cousin. "Why do you guys always bother me?!"

"I think they like you." Aoi wiggled her eyebrows suggestively with a smirk on her face.

Her smirk only strengthened after seeing slight blushes on the twins' and Tamaki's faces. _'Interesting.'_

Ignoring her cousin, Haruhi continued on her rant. "How did you guys find us?!"

The twins popped up on both sides of her and clung to her shoulders. "We just went by your apartment but you weren't there." Hikaru spoke first.

Kaoru finished for him. "Your dad told us that you spent the weekend with Aoi-chan."

Hunny leapt onto Aoi's back, who was caught off guard but quickly caught her balance and looked back at the smaller blonde with a confused look.

He smiled at her causing the usual floating flowers to appear out of nowhere. "So, we went to Aoi-chan's house to see if Aoi-chan and Haru-chan would play with us. But no one was at your house, Aoi."

Aoi thought about it for a second before she remembered something. "Ah. Its Sunday today: grocery shopping day." Aoi's expression quickly changed to one of irritation. "How did you guys know where I live?"

All the boys pointed to Kyouya, who smirked at her as his glasses caught the bright reflection of the sun.

Aoi just gave the bespectacled boy an exasperated look. "Should have known."

Haruhi just got more irritated. "Bakas."

Kaoru appeared in front of Aoi and looked her up and down, as Hikaru appeared from behind doing the same thing. Aoi was a little uncomfortable. "Uh…what are you guys doing?"

Hikaru joined his brother in front of the blonde as they both continued to inspect her visual prospect. The two suddenly gained identical feral smiles and cocked their heads in opposite directions. **""I guess it's a family curse, huh?""**

"What are you talking about?"

Hikaru started by tilting his face in close. "Both you and Haruhi look like obvious girls now…"

"But you both lack severely in the chest area!" Kaoru joined his brother, the feral smiles still in place, if not stronger.

Haruhi started to twitch so much that it probably wasn't a healthy thing. "Why are you guys even looking in that area?!"

"What do you expect? They're still boys." Aoi answered simply before she looked down at her own chest. "Hmmm. I could've sworn these disappeared in this shirt."

Haruhi glared tiredly at the blonde. "Don't encourage them!!"

Aoi just shrugged. Suddenly she was brought into a suffocating hug as her face met an unknown chest. "What the-?"

"Unhand my niece, you horrible children! Her and my wonderful daughter don't need you to approve of them. OR TO LOOK AT THEM PERVERTEDLY!!"

Three guesses on who this was.

"Ah, tono, we were just messing with them." Kaoru gave the overactive male a bored stare.

Hikaru mirrored his brother's expression. "Yea most of our mom's models have a stick figure like them."

Haruhi glared at Tamaki. "Let her go, sempai! And stop bothering us!"

Aoi looked up questioningly at the person still having a hold on her. She just blinked as she saw a comical waterfall of tears run down his cheeks. Suddenly she was let go, as Tamaki threw himself onto her cousin. Haruhi just gave her an annoyed stare.

Aoi laughed good-heartedly at how weird these people were. She was beginning to like them. The twins left her side to go pick on Haruhi and Tamaki, leaving her with Hunny, Mori, and Kyouya.

She turned to look at them, and smiled as she turned her head up to greet the tallest male. "Hey, Takkun! How are you?"

"Just fine." His deep, husky voice rang through the air as if it was an unnatural occurrence. Her smile just widened as she saw a small smile appear on his features. The both of them missed the smile on Hunny's face as he saw how quickly the blonde had grown on his cousin. They also missed the quizzical expression on Kyouya's face.

'_They just met yesterday and he's already speaking in short sentences to her. There's more to this girl than let on.'_

"Aoi-chan, what were you and Haru-chan doing out here?"

She turned her head to the little blonde that clung to the Spartan's shoulder. "We were just talking to each other."

"You and Haru-chan are like me and Takashi!! You're cousins, too! Ne, Takashi?"

"Yeah." The taller one nodded.

Aoi smirked at this new idea. "Yea you're right, but I'm pretty sure she would be the one on my shoulder."

Hunny giggled as Mori smile got even a centimeter bigger.

'_The earth didn't crack?! My prediction was WRONG!'_ Aoi had to bite her bottom lip to help stifle her laughter, which Kyouya noticed.

She felt his scrutinizing gaze the whole time. She'd greet him later.

The atmosphere around them broke as the soft sound of bells reached their ears. Even Tamaki and the twins froze in they're unrelenting torture of Haruhi. The two females exchanged confused glances at the fact that the boys were distracted by something.

"What's that?" Hunny jumped up further on Mori's shoulder till he sat near his head. He pointed to the entrance of the park.

Everyone gaze followed to where he pointed, to see a middle aged man with a soft expression pushing a metal cart into the park. Small bells floated on a beam on top of the cart and moved with each step he took. The old man was balding and his hair was going from a deep black to an ashen gray in places.

Aoi gave a wide smile in recollection of the old man. "Kikuchi-sama!" She waved her hand in the air as she closed her eyes in joy.

The others watched on as the old man smiled back and pushed the cart closer to her. Stopping a few feet in front of the group of teens, his smile grew a bit bigger. "Aoi, how are you this afternoon? Oh, I see you've made new friends! Maybe they'd like some ice cream."

Tamaki jumped up next to the cart causing the old man to jump slightly. His purple eyes were glittering with wonder and amazement at the cart in front of him. "It's a commoner street vendor. This one sells ice cream! AMAZING!!"

The old man looked up at Aoi with a questioning gaze and she just shrugged. He looked back down at Tamaki and smiled nervously. "Well would you like a few scoops young man?" Tamaki nodded as the old man turned to the other males. "How about the rest of you? It'll be on the house since you're all friends of Aoi-chan here."

"**Please and thank you!!"** A group chime filled the air as Tamaki, who dragged Haruhi, Kaoru, Hikaru, and Hunny, who in turn dragged Mori, closed in on the cart.

Aoi turned to her left and smirked at Kyouya who hadn't moved from his spot but was shaking his head at the others. "You don't want any?"

Kyouya turned to her and smirked in response. "I'm not a fan of sweets."

"They have Wasabi flavored if you want that."

His face gave her a slightly disgusted look. She laughed at his face. "Yea, it's not as exotic as it sounds."

"Aoi…" She looked up as he got her attention from her little laugh fest. His glasses caught the glare of the sun and covered his eyes.

Before he could continue, he jumped as her face came close to his and he blinked at her in slight surprise.

"How do your glasses always seem to catch the sun just right? Do you have like some sort of satellite that tells you which direction the sunlight is pointing?" Her voice became slightly robotic in mockery. "Ootori-san, the sun is pointing 45 degrees north-north east. Move your head to the right slightly!"

Kyouya twitched at her and growled in annoyance. Hearing his anger, she smiled at him in mock-innocence. "Are you pissed now? Sorry."

He cleared his throat as he covered up his anger. He had something that needed to be taken care of. "As I was saying-."

"Oh yea, sorry about that. Continue."

He sighed slightly; he was getting tired of her interrupting him. "Aoi, I have a proposition for you."

She raised an eyebrow curiously. "A proposition?"

"Yes, I'm sure you're fully aware of your cousin's debt by now." Aoi nodded, so he continued. "How would you like to help her?"

This caused Aoi to narrow her eyes slightly. "What kind of help exactly would I be giving?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Mori had been watching the two interact through his peripheral vision, and he noticed the small sense of distrust on the blonde girl's face. _'What exactly is he going to say to her?'_

"What flavor do you want?" The old man with the ice cream cart had caught his attention and brought his gaze back from the pair. The old man's smile grew as he realized what the tall brunette was staring at, but decided not to bring it up. "Any flavor you favor?"

"Taro." He answered simply.

The old man bent into the cold opening of his cart as he scooped up some of the said ice cream to put in a small bowl. "That's Aoi's favorite flavor, too. She's usually one of the few people who always order it."

For some reason, Mori turned at the sound of her name and looked at the old man before his gaze turned back onto the blonde. He slowly faced the man again…

* * *

Kyouya smiled slightly; he knew she would be curious enough to hear him out. "How would you like to be a host? You're already a popular item to the female population at our school; why not use it to your advantage? If you do, we'll lower her debt for every 25 guests you host."

"25?! Why do I have to host so many if you're probably only gonna lower it by a microscopic percent?!" He smirked slightly at the fact that she could bring slang into a sophisticated conversation.

"It would still be a help to her."

Aoi sighed slightly as she watched her cousin being dragged around the park by Tamaki and the twins. She was obviously annoyed with them, but she had to deal with these people because of that damn vase.

She sighed again. "How hard is it to replace a vase." She mumbled under her breath and looked back at Kyouya with a serious face. "Look, let me sleep on it okay? I'll get back to you tomorrow morning before the school day starts."

"Meet us in the club room."

"Right, the club room." Aoi looked away from him and jumped back a little as a small bowl of a pale red ice cream with a spoon sticking out was held in front of her.

She followed the hand that held it out to her and found that the arm was attached to Mori's body. She smiled slightly and took the bowl in her hands. She took a spoonful and tasted it. Her face lit up as the slightly sweet taste filled her taste buds. "Taro! Thank you, Takkun!"

He smiled softly and it quickly changed to his usual stoic expression as they were joined by everyone else.

Aoi looked over at the old man as he turned to leave the group and jogged up to him. "Kikuchi-sama, I'll pay for the ice creams, okay?"

"No, it's quite alright, Aoi-chan. I've known you since you were knee-high, and I've not once asked you to pay for any of your ice creams. You and your brothers were like my own grandchildren. Besides, I always like it when you make new friends."

She chuckled nervously and she scratched the back of her head. "Yea, new friends…" _'Not that I asked them to be.'_

The old man continued walking as he waved back at her. "Until next time."

"Right!"

A music tone filled the air as everyone started to look around for the source of the sound. It was coming from Aoi's back pant pocket. Reaching back, she pulled out her cell phone and pressed the button to read the text message she just received. The others watched as her expression changed to one of curiosity and she suddenly looked up and around as if searching for something.

Her eyes landed on the entrance to the park. Everyone turned to see a tall, lean young man, around Aoi's age leaning on a motorcycle. He had a shoulder length, spiky, copper-color mess of hair. His eyes were covered by a pair of goggles and he was too far to really see any close facial detail. He was dressed in a pair of black jeans that were similar to Aoi's and to the other males didn't look too comfortable. He had on a band T-shirt and studded jewelry that matched the studded belt that held up his pants.

Aoi turned back around to the others and smiled. "I gotta go. I'll see you guys around."

Haruhi gave her cousin a helpless expression. "You're gonna leave me with them?!"

Aoi's smile became apologetic as she began to head towards the entrance. "I'm sorry, _cugina_. We'll hang out again some other time. Got a Cherries show to get to."

Haruhi sighed and gave her cousin a half-hearted glare. "I still can't believe you go to those shows. I guess I can try to survive with them."

The blonde gave the brunette a thumb's up. "Good luck! Hey, Kyouya!"

He focused on her as the others listened in with interest. "Tomorrow morning, okay?"

He smirked and just nodded as she turned and ran to the young man who had already started his motorcycle. They watched the strange blonde jump onto the back of the motorcycle and continue eating her bowl of ice cream as he sped off.

""**What's a Cherries show?""** The twins turned to Haruhi, who just gave them a tired look.

"It's a male burlesque show." She answered simply. She had to stifle her laughter as she saw the pale look that **all** the boys had on their faces.

* * *

"Why are we waiting for her again?" Haruhi turned to face the males as they casually lounged around the host club the next morning. It was 5 minutes before classes started and Kyouya had told them after their meeting that they needed to wait for Aoi to come speak to them.

"I told you, we need to speak to her." Haruhi just narrowed her eyes at Kyouya who just sipped his coffee calmly.

"What is she going to talk to us about?"

Before she could be answered the door opened slightly. She saw a blonde head duck under the random flying Rose petals that usually greet anyone who enter that room. "Damn, don't those things ever go away?!"

The familiar voice brought everyone's attention to the door. There standing in the usual male Ouran uniform, was Aoi. Her hair was spiked up once again and her lip studs had been changed to have colorful tops instead of the metal ones. Her school jacket was open and her tie was slightly askew. The white button up shirt, which was obviously slightly baggy on her, was not tucked in. The silver chain with the three dog tags she wore the day before could be seen peeking out from under her collar.

Kyouya placed his cup of coffee down and turned his attention back to the blonde. "Well?"

Aoi looked around the room; her gaze landing on each of the hosts slowly. Everyone sat there waiting for her to answer whatever she and Kyouya had spent the day before speaking of.

After looking around, she brought her gaze back to Kyouya and smiled wildly. "You got yourself a new host!"

Haruhi eyes widened in shock. "WHAT?!"

**A/N: Italian Dictionary time!!**

**Che Cazzo- is slang for "What The Fuck!"**

**Cugina- means female cousin.**

**Oh and the Cherries show is actually a male burlesque show in Tokyo. It's pretty funny. I saw one on IControl. And for those of you who don't know, burlesque shows are not the same as going to a stippers club. Burlesque is meant to be a form of art, dealing with the human body and sexuality. And no they aren't completely nude!!**

**THANK YOU!! Review if you want! **


	3. Tell Me What To Swallow

**A/N: Okay I got this one out earlier than expected since I had like an inspiration explosion in my brain. It was painful. XD Anyways, don't think the title is dirty or anything. It's not you perverts. It's the title of a song. Most of the chapters will probably be titled with the names of song. I used this title because Aoi pretty much gets everything crammed down her throat in one day.**

**You will learn some stuff about Aoi in this chapter that are essential to her character and her family. So YAY!! XD Anyways I digress. Tell me if you like it. And I hope you enjoy it.**

**Song for this chapter - "Banquet" by Bloc Party**

Chapter Three

**Tell Me What to Swallow**

Haruhi sighed as she walked down the hallways of Ouran, her cousin by her side. The brunette looked stressed and slightly confused. Her brows furrowed just about as far as they could go. "And I thought you couldn't get any more confusing."

Aoi, who was walking next to her, had her arms crossed behind her head in a careless manner. Her electric eyes slid to the side of her already bored expression. The pink walls were already grating on her nerves. "What do you mean?"

The brunette sighed as she turned to the blonde. "Why did you decide to become a host? You already know how stupid those guys can be, what made you want to join?"

"Um," Aoi brought her eyes up to stare at the ceiling. She knew her eyes were clear windows into her person and she was usually a brutally honest person. Lying to people was not her forte. "I have my reasons, I guess." She shrugged casually as her eyes went back to her cousin.

Haruhi looked at her strangely before sighing in defeat. _'If she doesn't want to tell me, she won't tell me.'_ Facing foreword again she stuck her hand out to the blonde. "Let me see your schedule."

Aoi inwardly sighed, grateful that the previous conversation is over. _'If I told her I did this to help her, she wouldn't have it. She'd fight me to the death over it. Family curse: Unbearable pride ……well that and our lack of curves.'_ "Here." She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the folded piece of paper and placed it in Haruhi's hand.

Her blue eyes surveyed out the windows of the school hallways as they awaited the first bell to ring. They had abandoned the boys earlier because they had been told that they had to set up stuff for one new host as well as a 'training regimen', as they put it. Aoi had lost herself in her own thoughts but heard the faint sound of her schedule being unfolded.

"WHAT?!"

That she heard clearly. Too clearly. Aoi's eyebrow twitched and flung her hand up to left her left ear and rubbed it around just to make sure everything was still working. "Jeez, blow my ear drum, why don't you?"

She turned to see her brunette cousin staring at her schedule incredulously. "What's wrong?"

Haruhi turned to the blonde and gave her a pointed look. "What do you mean 'what's wrong'? Have you seen your schedule?!"

"Yeah. What's wrong with it? It seemed just fine to me."

"You only have one First Year class!! And that's homeroom!"

"Oh yea, that's math. I was always kinda mediocre at math, remember?"

Haruhi eyes just filled with more confusion at how her cousin just seemed to blow this off. "You have only one First Year class…."

"Math."

"One Second Year class…."

"English."

"Two Third Year classes…."

"Advanced Biology and Japanese History."

"And even two classes at the college campus?!"

"Oh yea, that's Ancient Literature and Robotics." Aoi continued to look completely calm and she gazed at her cousin again and saw her looking back with a 'Are you insane?!' look.

"What? Are you upset that I have a free period?"

"NO!! I'm wondering how you got classes like this?!" Haruhi looked like she was about to blow a gasket and was pretty much standing on the tips of her toes to pointedly glare in Aoi's face.

Sighing, Aoi put her hands on Haruhi's shoulders and pushed her slowly back onto her full feet. "I got those classes cuz I asked for them."

The brunette blinked in confusion, her brown eyes wide and intent. "That's it?"

The blonde just shrugged before she turned to continue down the hallway to their homeroom. "That's it."

Haruhi just sighed as she watched her cousin's retreating form, her arms still crossed behind her head. She shook her head at the blonde before letting a small smile slip out. "Hey, Aoi?"

"Hmm?" The blonde stopped in mid step and looked over her shoulder questionably.

"Homeroom's this way." She pointed down the hallway to her left as she stared at the blonde boredly.

Aoi just smiled sheepishly and turned back around. Passing by her cousin, she grabbed her elbow and continued around the corner. "I knew that."

* * *

Being Aoi's first day, she was surprised how fast it went by. The décor of the school still freaked her out. As much as she liked being extravagant, when it came to furniture and trinkets, she preferred simplicity or modernism. Ouran made it seem like they wanted the place to look like the inside of a castle; a pastel castle.

Possibly made out of cake. Aoi had even contemplated licking the walls just to make sure. But she decided against it. Not that she would even have the chance to.

She had thought it was odd enough when she first appeared at Ouran, to be followed by a group of girls, but because her classes ranged in grade level, she had more than just first years hanging on her coat tails.

In her first class and homeroom, which happened to be the only class she had with Haruhi and the twins, the girls immediately flocked to her desk, asking questions about random things. Like what was her favorite color and what sugar she preferred in her tea. Or should I say in HIS tea.

Luckily for her the twins dispersed the crowd and told them that they could talk to her in between classes. And so…….they did. They followed her around as she made her way to her other classes and even random girls who caught glimpses of her in the hallways followed. She didn't feel compelled to answer any questions and she knew they would be brought up once she became an official host. What better way to gain customers than keeping them in the dark until the time was right?

Wow. She felt as if Kyouya possessed her for a split second there.

In her second year class, Kyouya and Tamaki kept the girls from overpowering her seeing as how they sat at each side of her. She did feel slightly more relaxed. Pay notice to the word 'slightly'.

She noticed that through out the class, Kyouya continued to scribbled notes about how all the girls in the class would take quick glances at Aoi. He was probably trying to figure out what to use as profit.

Tamaki wasn't any better since the hyper bomb blonde wanted to constantly start a conversation with her about Haruhi. And she always answered the same.

"Why ask me? Ask her yourself."

The third year classes were moderate. The girls still continued to follow her around, and Hunny and Mori were in charge of keeping the rabid females away from the new meat. She had noticed that during classes, Mori would constantly cast side glances at her when he thought she wasn't looking and would help her when ever she dropped something or she almost fell out of her chair. And Hunny was starting to scare her, due to the fact that he always had this impossibly wide smile on his face, and it seemed to widen every time Mori did something for her.

Lunch was difficult. She had to be dragged to the table where all the other hosts sat. The girls of Ouran took that as an official sign that Aoi was a host now. She heard a lot of girls talking about how they couldn't wait till they got to the club. She was slowly starting to dread her decision to even come to this school. _'I should have just stayed at Shiroken.'_

She had brought a bento box that she made with her caretaker that morning. Tamaki and the twins were bothering Haruhi and her to switch with them. Being who Aoi was, she blew them off and continued to eat her lunch. She wasn't too fond of fancy foods and she grew up thinking that food that was prepared with love and care tasted better. Sappy, huh?

She almost busted out laughing at Haruhi's face when she bit into the expensive food she had curiously traded with Hikaru. But she just choked on the sweet fried egg she was eating at the time. After a few pats to her chest, as well as Kyouya's clipboard smacking her back, she was finally able to swallow it. An immediate glare was directed to the bespectacled boy who just smirked at her in response.

Having college courses would seem stressful to anyone else, but to Aoi it was her haven. Seeing as how most high school students didn't need to go to the college campus for anything, she was fan girl free on her way to the school and college girls were more mature. It wasn't that far, just across a few courtyards and it was very relieving to be out in the open for a while.

Her classes weren't as hard as other people would think, especially because of the fact that she had a knack for both subjects. She loved writing and reading as a hobby so her Ancient Literature class was very interesting.

Being from a family in which her father was head of an electronics company, she had a natural curiosity to technology since she was very young. She had even spent some spare time with her family in the labs they invented in. Her father was not only a CEO but a scientist for Take Electronics. "You should put in your own effort into what you create." That's what her father told her when he was teaching her about inventing. If she was going to take over after him, she had to know what was going on and help when needed. **If she was!!** That's where her Robotics class came in.

Another perk to her college classes, was that in both classes she had someone she knew. He was older than her, but she met him through her brothers and she knew him well enough to trust him with her life, but that's for a later time.

Her free period was the last class of the day, right before the club hours. She took this time to sneak out into the rose hedge maze and find her way around. She liked stuff like this and decided that she would start spending her free hour here, so she had to find her way through and remember the route she took. It took her the whole hour to actually go around it a few times. She got lost about 5 times but learned from her mistakes. By the time the bell had rung she had mastered her way in and out.

* * *

She headed back in the music building and found her way back to the third music room. On her way, she was greeted by many girls who were going in the opposite direction. And none too happy about it either. She was confused. _'I thought the host club would be open by now.'_

Reaching the door, she saw the reason the girls were all heading home early. On the handle, she found a hanging sign that read:

"Host Training Day – We apologize for the inconvenience, princesses. We won't be able to see you blushing beauties until tomorrow. We will wait on bated wings."

Aoi sighed deeply and pushed the sign lightly but with enough force to spin it around the handle once. "I wonder who wrote that." Note the sarcasm.

Blowing her bangs up, she turned the knob and prepared herself to dodge another onslaught of incoming rose petals.

* * *

"No, no, no. You need to put your pinky under the glass as you set it down." Tamaki had taken it upon himself to teach the new host about the proper etiquette of the club.

He sat on one side of a tea table with Aoi across from him. She just watched him boredly as he demonstrated how to place a glass down. She picked up her glass, took a sip, and placed it down like she normally would.

"Your pinky wasn't under it!!"

"Why does my pinky need to be under it?!"

"It cushions the glass, and stops it from making any loud noises in its placement."

Aoi just gave him a dead pan expression. "That's stupid."

Tamaki twitched at this. "IT'S NOT STUPID!! IT'S PROPER!!"

The rest of the hosts sat on tables and couches nearby, watching in amusement. The twins were trying hard not to laugh at how Tamaki was reacting towards the new recruit. Haruhi just looked bored and was reminded of how she had to deal with this when she first started. Hunny was watching in interest as he was eating countless amounts of cake. Mori would clean his mouth every now and then but would turn his attention back to the two blondes at the table with his usual stoic expression. Kyouya sat at a table, typing on his laptop and looking up at times at the 'progress' Aoi was making.

Aoi just sighed with an irritated expression. "My cup didn't make any noise as I put it down, so I did just fine if you ask me."

Tamaki growled slightly as he watched her place her glass down again. "It also has to do with the fact that it is proper. The pinky cushion is essential."

Aoi looked at her glass once more and smirked slightly. "You mean like this?" She took her cup and placed it down, rather roughly, on Tamaki's pinky.

Tamaki's eyes watered in pain as he yelled out. "ITAI!!"

Aoi just stared back at her cup with wide eyes and feigned an innocent facade. "Well, that made more noise than I wanted it to."

The twins burst into fits of laughter. "Nice one, Aoi-chan!!" "Go Imouto!!"

Tamaki ran over to Haruhi and clung onto her legs, tears pouring out of his eyes dramatically. "Haruhi!! My niece was being mean to me!! She hurt me!!"

Aoi just raised an eyebrow at this. "Since when was I his niece?"

"Get off of me, Sempai!! You're getting my pants damp!!" She kicked out and Tamaki slipped off and surprisingly slid into his corner of woe.

Aoi rested her head on the table and sighed heavily. "This is a waste of time."

"I couldn't agree more." Lifting her head up slightly, she saw a shadow standing behind her form. The figure reached over her back and took the cup from her hand. "You won't be needing that anymore." She recognized the smooth voice as none other than Kyouya.

She sat up and watched as he placed the glass back down on the table and took the seat that Tamaki had occupied before. She smirked as she saw him use the 'pinky cushion' technique when he put the cup down.

She sat and waited for him to start a conversation, but he just sat and watched her. The two just stared at each other, one with a blank expression, the other calculating. He was sizing her up and she knew it. But Aoi's attention span was nagging at her to get rid of this bore and find something interesting, like throwing the glass at his head.

Aoi just sighed and gave him a pointed look. "Well? Are you going to ask me something? Or continue to marvel at my awesomeness?"

He smirked at her and she was starting to wonder if that's the only expression he was truly capable of meaning. "We still need to find your type."

Aoi raised an eyebrow at the shadow king's words. "My ….type? Oh yea. My label." She leaned back in her chair with her arms behind her head as she watched him. "Alright. Lay it on me, daddio."

He quirked an eyebrow at her speech and just blinked at her.

Before he could give an answer, a grating noise that sounding like a cat dying, strained Aoi's ear drums. A rumbling from beneath caused the blonde female to cling to her chair like a dog running from a vacuum. She turned her head to the side to see a spinning platform rising from the floor and a girl, who Aoi had realized the noise was coming from, stood posed on top of it. _'That's her laugh?!'_

"Oh ho, Aoi-kun it's amazing to finally meet you! I am Renge, this club's manager!" The caramel haired girl ran up to her and stood very close to her face with stars strangely sparkling in her eyes. "I will be the one to choose your type!"

Aoi just blinked at her. "Why are you yelling?!" Aoi's volume just added to the chaos this girl brought in.

Kyouya gave her a dull look. "Must you yell back?"

She just smiled brightly in mock innocence. "I have a thing for utter mayhem."

She turned back to this Renge girl as she was being studied by this new addition. She waited patiently for her verdict as the girl's brown eyes ran over every inch of her. It was another girl, so she didn't really feel violated, all though as posing as a boy, you'd think she would. But nope.

"I have it!!" Renge snapped her fingers and got everyone's attention. Even Tamaki, who had recently returned to planet Earth. "You shall be…."

Everyone closed in on her as they waited in suspense, except for Kyouya who sat still and uncaring.

"…the Rebellious type!!"

"Rebellious?" Aoi pointed a finger at herself as she thought about the title. Was that going to fit?

"**We agree!!"** Tamaki, Hunny, Hikaru, and Kaoru popped up next to her and yelled in agreement, obviously. Mori stood behind them and just nodded. Aoi just sweat dropped at this.

Haruhi just walked up to her cousin and gave her a bored stare. "Welcome to Hell."

Aoi returned the look. "Thanks for the Invite."

Kyouya stood up and tapped Aoi on the shoulder to get her attention. She turned and looked up at him in question. A small smile perked at the sides of his lips. "Welcome to the family."

She watched him as he grabbed his laptop and headed out the door. Haruhi who had seen this event watched him curiously. _'Well, that was new.'_

Aoi sighed and turned to the group of idiots who were praising Renge for her 'Amazing Titling abilities'. She sweat dropped again and called out to them. "Oi!!" They all turned hearing her shout out. "Club hours are over, right? I have to head out. So I'll see you guys later!"

"I'll walk with you Aoi. Bye guys." Haruhi was just happy to be out of the room of idiots as she followed her cousin out the door and into the courtyard.

Aoi faltered slightly as she felt someone watching her. She looked around before turning back to the building she had just exited. Looking up, she found a figure standing in one of the upper windows. The figure focused in to being none other than Mori. She watched as a small smile graced his features.

Her usual wild grin spread across her face as she reached up and waved before running after her cousin, who was waiting at the gate.

As she walked down the street, she looked up at the sky and smiled slightly. _'I think I might like it here. Might!'_

**A/N: Okay, I've officially decided that some of the chapters will be based off of chapters in the manga. Why the manga? Cuz I find it funnier than the anime and much more in depth. Some of the events that take place in the manga will help the relationship that Aoi develops with the members of the club.**

**And I've also decided that even though this story is about the love triangle between Mori, Aoi, and Kyouya, I will bring in stuff about the love triangle between Hikaru, Haruhi, and Tamaki. And a little bit of what goes through Kaoru, I guess. But just so you know I'll probably base those off of what happens in the manga and just so you know, I'm totally HaruxTama!**

**Review please!!**


	4. Sway

**A/N: Oh I'm so glad I finally got this one out. DAMN YOU, WRITER'S BLOCK! Anyways I happen to like this chapter, because I realized there are a lot of weird random moments! YAY! But it gets a little serious near the end....but still funny. **

**Remember, there is a Italian-English dictionary at the end of the chapter.**

**The song for this chapter - "Believe" by The Bravery**

Chapter Four

**Sway**

Aoi's electric ultramarine eyes watched the sky as the warm morning sun shined down on her face. A soft smile played on her lips as the wind blew madly through her honey blonde hair. "Good morning, sun! _Buongiorno, sole_! It's such a beautiful day. Oh, I would kill someone to run in a field with this weather!"

Suddenly, her head was jerked forward as the familiar green and dark blue convertible Porsche stopped in front of the Ouran Academy gates. She shot the pink building a death glare as Sora laughed at her. "Too bad you don't have time to commit a homicide. You've got school to get to, little sister….or should I say little brother?"

He glanced at the male uniform his little sister happened to be wearing and smirked as he turned back to watch Haruhi, in the same uniform, gather her stuff in the back seat. He looked back forward as the blonde got out of the car. "It doesn't matter what you call me, I'll still ignore your idiocy. Later."

Aoi pulled the front seat to tilt forward, and gave Haruhi enough room to get out as well. "Thanks again for the ride, Sora-kun."

"No problem, _cugina_. See you two later, I gotta get to work."

The two females turned to him as he sped off. ""BYE!"" Turning towards the school, both of them carried a sullen expression. Simultaneously, they dropped their heads and sighed heavily.

A sign appeared at the bottom of the screen with arrows pointing at the sulking girls saying: **"Regret every morning they wake up now."**

* * *

All day during classes, the hosts had noticed how Aoi was sulking in every class. The girl didn't even try to hide her bad mood that day. Kyouya especially was concerned, because he thought her bad mood might affect her first day as a host. She had attracted many girls to sign up with Aoi as their host, so if she did horribly, they could lose profit.

It was at lunch that a worried Haruhi finally decided to talk to her. The tiny brunette sat at the empty table Aoi had taken. When she walked into the lunch room, she avoided going anywhere near the Host Club's table and took an abandoned table in the corner.

Her brown eyes peered over to her right where her cousin sat eating her bento box with her eyes closed. Both girls could feel the eyes of the Hosts burning holes in their heads. "Okay, Aoi, you've been like this since this all morning. What's wrong?"

Aoi sighed heavily and moved her lunch box forward so she could bang her head on the table. "I don't want to do this. I should just head home."

Haruhi chuckled at her. _'She's depressed over nothing.'_ "Aoi, it's not that big a deal. You just talk to the girls the way you normally would, ya know?"

"You don't understand!!" The blonde retorted.

"Of course, I do! I felt the same way on my first day, too."

"No! That's not what I'm upset about."

Haruhi blinked at her cousin as the blonde sat up and turned to her. "Then, what's bothering you?"

"Sora ate the last muffin this morning. I didn't get to eat this morning because of that, so now my whole day feels off!!" Aoi threw her head back in a dramatic sorrow.

Haruhi's eyebrow twitched as she swung her fist to the back of the blonde's head.

"OW!!" Aoi's hands flew up to her new injury and lightly glared at her cousin. "What the hell was that for?!"

By now, everyone's attention was on them. Haruhi glared back at the blonde and didn't waver. "You had me worried! I thought something was seriously wrong with you! Now, I see that the only thing wrong with you is your lack of sanity!!!"

A tense silence washed over the cafeteria. Everyone watched as Haruhi was breathing hard from yelling and Aoi just sat there staring at her. Suddenly, said blonde broke the silence…..by laughing?!

Haruhi stood there slightly bewildered until a small chuckle grew in the back of her throat until she was laughing along with the insane blonde. The rest of the cafeteria just stared. The girls were all blushing and trying not to squeal. They thought it was really cute how close the two "boys" were. Everyone knew they were cousins, but now they seemed almost like "brothers". The males on the other hand were confused but just shrugged and returned to their lunch.

The hosts on the other hand, were much more interested than anyone else. Tamaki and the twins watched in amazement how easy it was for Aoi to soothe Haruhi's inner beast. They realized how having Aoi around would make having Haruhi around much easier on them. Mori sat in a state of shock as Aoi's laughter rang through his ears. There was no doubt in his mind now, that it was her. Hunny sat staring in curiosity at the two girls, wondering what was so funny. Kyouya sat in mild shock, not too much, but just enough. How could Aoi be bothered by something so trivial, so minute? She didn't seem to have a care in the world, but then her universe crumbled just because there were no muffins for breakfast?!"

The clock tower bell rang, signaling the end of lunch and was the cause of breaking everyone's train of thought. The hosts began to gather up their things for their next class and looked up when Haruhi, who was now wearing a small smile, came back to pick up her stuff. Mori looked around her only to find that Aoi had already taken off to the college campus. His onyx eyes dropped sullenly and Hunny noticed. The tiny blonde just grabbed his cousin's hand comfortingly and dragged him to their next class. Kyouya had unconsciously looked for her as well, but stopped short after he realized what he was doing. _'What the hell is wrong with me?! Why should I care where she is?!'_

* * *

Aoi walked through the courtyards of the Ouran campuses, heading to the high school's music building. Her Robotics lecture had run longer than normal, and had cut into her free period a bit. So she decided to go ahead, and head to the music room early, to prepare herself mentally and physically for what would happen today in that room.

Although, on today's journey, she wasn't alone. Walking next to her was a young man who was in his early twenties. He had short, spiky, chestnut hair and mischievous black eyes. He was slightly tanned and was quite a few inches taller than her. He had a broad, athletic build and a troublemaking grin. His outfit consisted of a green and black stripped t-shirt with a gray suit jacket over it. A pair of ink rinse denim jeans covered his legs and he had skate shoes for his feet.

As they entered the door to the music building, the guy looked around in disgust. "I thought the college campus' eggshell walls were bad enough, but PINK?! I pity you, Aoi-pii."

"I pity myself." She sighed tiredly as she made her way up the familiar flight of stairs. "By the way Okibi-kun, why are you following me?"

The male gave her a half-hearted, but irritated glare. "I told you earlier, Sora wanted me to check out these new friends you and Haruhi made. I guess I'm like the taste tester here, in case they're serial killers or something."

"They're not serial killers, trust me. That is unless you count Tamaki's slaughtering of romantic gestures." Aoi shook her head as she continued down the hallway counting each music room they passed. "I like to think of them as just luxury man-hoes."

Okibi chuckled slightly and side-glanced at the blonde as a thought came to mind. "So does that mean that you're one, too? Oh, no, technically you would be a 'luxury wo-man-hoe', right?"

If looks could kill, Okibi would be six feet under and his body would be buried in ten different places by now. Her death glare made him feel like taking back what he had said, but it was too late. What was said was said. Besides she set herself up for that one; he couldn't resist the temptation. "Don't irk me today, Mochizuki. I didn't get to eat my morning muffin, so I'm having a REALLY off day! You make it any worse and I'll rip off your---oh, we're here."

Okibi blinked in confusion at the girl's quick change in demeanor. Sure he was used to it, but it still catches him by surprise. For once, he was grateful for Aoi's short attention span because he knew she would follow through with whatever threat she was previously concocting.

He watched as Aoi just stared at the elegant, pink door with a sense of dread about her. He knew what she was doing. She was debating whether to go in or fly to the most remote part of Canada and change her name to Marley Copeland and become a reindeer herder.

_(A/N: I apologize to anyone named Marley Copeland, who happens to live in a remote part of Canada and herds reindeer. I didn't know you existed, but I hope I didn't offend you or any other Canadians!)_

"Nah, they have Kyouya. They'll find me."Aoi mumbled to herself before sighing in defeat and opening the door.

To what's becoming a natural reflex, she sidestepped to dodge the usual rose petals that flew out of no where. She forgot one slightly important thing though.

"AHHH!! Flowers are finally attacking! They're exacting their revenge! I'm sorry for what I did to those Azaleas that one time!! I'm sorry!!"

Aoi looked over her shoulder to find the twenty-one year old man flailing his arms around in a sad attempt to get the said assailants off his head. She sighed heavily and kicked his shin lightly, which amazingly made him stop going insane and look at her.

"They're off." She said as she pointed to his head.

He looked up and found that his head was petal-free. Sighing with relief, he turned to glare at her. "Why didn't you warn me?!"

A simple shrug was part of his answer. "It slipped my mind."

She turned back into the room and stopped short to find that her and her current companion were not alone. "Hey, you guys."

Okibi looked around her figure to find a tall blonde about his size with purple eyes and a look of confusion on his face; a black haired young man with glasses, who was working on his laptop until interrupted by them; a little blonde kid in the high school uniform, who was stuffing cake into his face while staring at them in curiosity; and a very tall guy with black, spiky hair that was sitting at the table with the blonde kid and staring at them blankly. He slowly rotated his head in her direction and gave her a blank face. "I think they might be serial killers."

"WHAT?!" Aoi looked over just in time to see a blonde blur whiz right by her and latch onto Okibi. Turning around she saw Tamaki straddling the older male and shaking him by his collar. "Why would you think we're serial killers?! How dare you sully the good name of this fine establishment filled with the greatest gentlemen in the world?!"

Okibi merely put his hand over Tamaki's face and tried to push him off. "What the hell is your problemo, dude?! I was just kidding!"

Aoi glared at Tamaki and brought her foot up and swung it at his head. "_Re dell'idiota_, what the hell is your damage?!"

Tamaki looked up with tears in his eyes and his hands on his head injury as he got off the older male. "But he was making fun of our club. How can you not defend it, Aoi-chan?!"

Aoi gave him a stern look and held up her index finger. "First of all, he was just joking and apparently you were the only one who didn't see it, seeing as how nobody else had moved from their spots."

Tamaki glanced at the other members of the club and found that what she said was true. None of the other males moved from their spots but continued to stare at the now brewing predicament he was in. He looked back at the blonde and gulped loudly. He watched as she held up a second finger. "Secondly, if I wanted to defend you guys I would, but seeing as how I didn't feel like it, you can't force me to."

A third finger was added. "And lastly, Okibi-kun is here to get an impression on you guys to report back to my big brother. I'm pretty sure that you ruined your chances of getting a good mark from him now. Usually, if Okibi doesn't like the people I'm hanging out with, seeing as how he's like another big brother to me, he and Sora will make sure I'm not within 30 feet of them."

This caused the four other members that were in the room to tense. They had just gotten a new host and if this older guy that was with her didn't like them, she would probably be sent back to her old school. Aoi would go away. The club wouldn't be as exciting. Haruhi will be in a bad mood and blame it all on Tamaki.

Hunny was the first to run up in desperation. "Okibi-kun, would you like some cakie?! Maybe it'll make you like us and not take Aoi-chan away!!" The tiny blonde held up a piece of strawberry cheesecake to the older males face with teary eyes and floating pink flowers dancing around him.

Okibi noted that the tall black haired male had followed the blonde and followed the tiny one's example. He held up a saucer with a tea cup on it which was filled with a light brown liquid that had a soothing lemony aroma. "Tea."

Okibi, who was standing again by now, politely declined both offers. He heard the sound of fingers flying across a keyboard and turned to the male with the glasses. The young man didn't look away from his screen once but began to address him. "Mochizuki Okibi-kun, I'm sorry but if we do not meet your standards for being Aoi's friends, I still cannot allow you to remove her from our club."

Tamaki flew over to Kyouya's pant leg and clutched on tightly. "Good job, mother! Tell him that he can't take away our niece!!"

Kyouya glared at him slightly, which caused the poor blonde to cower slightly. "Tamaki, you should sit down and stop talking; you'll only make things worse."

He sulked into his little corner and drew circles on the floor with his finger. "Yes, sir."

Kyouya re-adjusted his glasses and turned to the older male, who stood with an eyebrow raised and a look of interest on his face. "Why can I not remove her from here, if you don't mind me asking?"

The Shadow King smirked at Aoi, who in turned rolled her eyes at him and smirked back. "She's helping with a debt that one of the other members happens to be trapped in."

Okibi's eyebrows rose in surprise and looked to his left at the blonde girl, who was eating the strawberry cheesecake he had turned down. (Apparently she asked Hunny if she could have it, after Okibi didn't take it.) "You're helping with a debt?"

She nodded and swallowed the current chunk she was eating. "Yeah, Haruhi, being the bad luck person she is, broke a vase that cost eight million yen. Now, she's working off her debt as a host here. As for me, I decided to help, but just don't tell her. You know how she hates it when I help her out of jams."

Okibi sighed after hearing such an explanation and turned towards the door. He waved a hand over his shoulder carelessly. "You guys can keep her then. You all aren't that bad, except for the _re dell'idiota_. I gotta get to work. Later kiddies!"

Tamaki stared at the back of the older male as he left the room and turned to Aoi, who was waving at the retreating figure. "That's it?"

"That's it." She turned back to the other hosts with a wild grin on her face. "So, when does the club start?"

The bell rung just as Haruhi and the twins walked into the club room. Haruhi gave Aoi a questioning glance as she was put her stuff away. "Did I just see Okibi-kun down the hallway?"

"Yep."

"Why was he here?"

Aoi just shrugged and followed after Kyouya to the back room to drop her backpack. "Inspection."

* * *

Reaching from the couch she was perched on, Aoi's slender fingers hooked into the handle of the fine china tea cup. The cup was filled with a deep red, soft steaming liquid. The sweet raspberry aroma wafted from the cup as it reached her lips. A soft clink noise was made as her lip rings tapped the brim of the cup as she took a sip. The super sweet fruity taste warmed her insides as it flowed down her throat. Haruhi put just enough sugar in there for her: 9 spoons full. So in a way, it was more sugar than tea.

A content sigh left her lips as her eyelids slowly slid open with a small smile on her face. She jumped slightly to see that the four girls who were sitting around her were watching her every move with such fascination. They even had blushes on their faces. Aoi chuckled sheepishly and rubbed that back of her head, while placing the cup down lightly. This only caused the girls to blush more and hold back a squeal.

'_They haven't said anything to me yet…...they just stare.'_

Finally one of the girls seemed to gain a sense of confidence. She was a second year. Aoi remembered seeing her in her English class. She was quite a few inches shorter than the blonde. She had long, straight light brown hair that reached to her mid-back and was held in place with a pink ribbon. Her large brown eyes were fixated on Aoi and didn't move. She was sitting with her hands folded on her lap and was shaking slightly. So maybe her confidence was wavering a little.

"Aoi-kun? Are you hair and eye color real?"

She blinked a few times after hearing the question. A wild smile grew on her face as she started to chuckle. She had heard that question so many times before. It was obvious that she was of Japanese decent by the structure of her face, but her eye and hair color had always stood out. Blonde hair and blue eyes were definitely not something that was common in Japan, unless it was artificial.

"Yes, they are real. My grandmother is from Italy, born and raised, and she has blonde hair and blue eyes. My father, my siblings, and I gained it, too. Just some of us have it darker or lighter than the others, ya know?"

All the girls nodded. Aoi was surprised how genuinely interested these girls were. They really wanted to know about her….even though they thought she was a guy, it was still very sweet of them. The other girls took Aoi's easygoingness as an okay for them to ask questions themselves.

"What's your favorite kind of music, Aoi-kun?"

The blonde scratched her head in thought. "Well, I'm open-minded when it comes to music, so my taste is kind of erratic. I listen to a little bit of everything, but as of lately I've been into experimental-indie American music."

"Experimental-indie?" All the girls chorused together gaining the attention of everyone else in the room. Aoi remained oblivious to it as she thought of a way to describe this type of music.

The blonde looked down at her lap as her brows knitted as she tried to come up with the right words. "Well, experimental-indie music consists of the usual band instruments: drums, bass, and more than likely, the acoustic guitar. But they added in a little touch of electronic sounds or the use of a synthesizer or keyboard. And the lyrics the artists come up with usually have a deeper meaning that you can feel deep down in your heart as the words are sung into your ears."

Aoi looked up hoping that was a good enough answer for them to understand to find the whole club staring at her. The girl with the short black bob, who was sitting at her table, was the one who asked the question. The girl's eyes sparkled with admiration at the words Aoi had just spoken. Aoi guessed that she was a musician of some sort to have such a look on her face.

So, the blonde smiled at everyone and all the girls in the club blushed and squealed. Aoi sweat dropped at this. _'Why do they always do that?'_

The girls continued to ask questions. Soon, the girls were cleared out by Kyouya so that the next group of customers, who had appointed her as their host, could get a chance. Each group of girls asked her more and more questions. Usually, they were just little tidbits about her, like if she liked the school (So far.); what her favorite color was (Orange.); how old she was (16); what did her family name work in (Electronics and Martial Arts.); and did she play any instruments (Piano, guitar, and the cello.). The rest of the club, hosts and customers alike, listened in on her conversations out of curiosity. They wanted to figure out as much as they could about this "guy".

Haruhi, on the other hand, could care less and just served tea and dealt with her customers, whom she knew were really paying attention to her blonde cousin. She smiled at the young blonde female. _'She's getting along better than I hoped. I'm glad.'_

There was one question, though, that caught the attention of everyone there. And they didn't even try to hide their curiosity as they turned their full attention to her table once the question left the young red head girl's lips. "Why did you go to public schools, if you were born into a high power lineage?"

Aoi watched the girl's expression as she asked the question and saw that there was no malice or ill intent behind the question. It was just pure curiosity. This question, too, had been one that popped up many times in Aoi's lifetime and sometimes it wasn't as innocent as this one.

The blonde licked her lips and rolled her tongue over her lip rings as she thought up the right way to put it. Sighing, she tilted her head to the left and watched the newly pour cup of raspberry tea in her cup. "It's because I wanted to."

She looked up to see the girls watching in confusion. She sighed again and continued. "My grandfather had grown up the same way most of you did: with his parents having a plan all set out for him. He was to gain the dojo in Hokkaido, and marry a wealthy man's daughter. But my grandfather was and always will be a rebel among men. He went against my great grandfather's wishes and fell in love with an Italian woman and married her."

She smiled with pride at the thought of her grandparents. "Since he was the only heir, my great grandfather had to deal with it. My grandparents raised my father with the thought that he could live out his life the way he wanted to. So he did. He created an electronics company and became a well known scientist and CEO. He married the woman he fell in love with and had kids."

Aoi's bright blue eyes seemed to shine as she looked up at the crowd of people who were now listening with such interest, even the hosts were among the audience. Except for Kyouya, who still sat at his table drinking coffee and reading a file. What no one knew was that he was listening intently.

"So my parents ended up raising me and my siblings with the same technique. We were all asked if we would rather go here or to a public school. We didn't see the point in having to go to a school like this when we can get an education like this anywhere else, and for free, mind you. So, we chose to go to public schools." She shrugged carelessly.

A sobbing noise was heard as several of the girls in the crowd around her actually started tearing up, as well as Tamaki, the twins, and Hunny. She blinked in confusion as she heard small whimpers of "How romantic" and "What a way to grow up" filled the room. The tower bells rang for the last time of the day signaling the end of after-school activities were over for the day. Aoi jumped at the sound and watched with a strange fascination as the girls began to filter out of the club room. Many of them waved goodbye to her and the rest of the club and she returned the gesture.

She helped tidy up the room and clean the dishes with Haruhi, as the males of the club sat around taking a break. Haruhi turned to her cousin, who was at a table away from hers, putting used cups onto the try she was holding. "I'm surprised you actually answered that girl's question, Aoi."

Aoi blinked her blue orbs at the brunette and smiled slightly before going back to work. "She asked it nicely. Why wouldn't I answer?"

Haruhi sighed at a memory that she knew was unpleasant for the both of them. "…because of last time."

This caught the boys' attention as they looked at Aoi in question. The blonde continued to work, not looking up from the tray. Tamaki was the brave soul who decided to ask. "What happened last time?"

Aoi sighed putting down the tray. Her bangs still covered her eyes as she continued to look down. "Not a lot of people approve of the way, my parents raised us. We really don't care what people think of us. But many people ask that question, just so they can get a chance to insult our parents; saying that they are unfit to have children in general, and that they suck as responsible parents. The last time someone told me that I lost my temper and bitched them out."

Haruhi turned to the guys with a look of concern. "Aoi hates getting angry. It's not a side she likes to show people. You guys may have seen her when she's annoyed, but you have yet to see her angry."

Suddenly, Aoi perked up as a thought occurred to her. "Hey, what time is it?!" She said hurriedly.

Kyouya blinked in surprise and looked at his laptop's clock. "It's 6:17. Why?"

She grimaced slightly. "I gotta go! I'll see you guys tomorrow!" She ran into the back room, grabbed her bag and headed out the doors in a blur of blonde and blue.

The rest of the hosts sat in confusion and disarray as Haruhi went back to cleaning up the tea cups. _'She's gonna be late as usual.'_

**A/N: Time for the Italian-English Dictionary once again!!**

**Buongiorno, sole: Good Morning, sun.**

**Cugina: female cousin**

**Re dell'idiota: Idiot King**

**Where is Aoi headed to? What is it that she seems to usually be late for? Who knows. Oh, wait! I DO!! -enter maniacal laughter- Ahem, sorry. I went into mad scientist mode. Anywho, I hope to start the next chapter soon, if I don't get stuck or something..........oh cheese and rice, I hope I didn't jinx myself. D:**

**Reviews would be nice. Whether good or bad, they make me happy knowing someone's reading.**


	5. Free Until They Cut Me Down

**A/N: YAY!! I got this one up! I got stuck just like I hoped i wouldn't at the end of the last chapter. I have the uncanny ability to Jinx myself. And it sucks. I hope you guys like this chapter.**

**I made this one to help you guys figure out about what's going on with Aoi and what the people she hangs out with are like. So you'll meet a couple of her friends. And they belong to me. They're based off a couple of my best friends...and they seem to be proud of that fact. xD**

**Anyways....onwards.**

**Song for the chapter: "Fall Back Down" by Rancid**

Chapter Five:

**Free Until They Cut Me Down**

'_If I turn around right now, they won't be there. It's just my traumatized, overdramatic imagination fucking with me. Okay, I should just casually glance back and---'_ A certain blonde female stretched her arms above her head as she faked a yawn. She loosely cast a neutral glance over her should and saw a group of familiar and irritating teen males and one seething female, who seemed to be dragged into this situation, hiding behind the trees that lined the street. They definitely weren't ninjas. _'—why are they following me?!'_ She sighed and hung her head in defeat.

* * *

"Why are we following, Aoi-chan?" Haruhi stood off to the side, glaring at the back of Tamaki's head. She had long since given up on hiding since she found who the club's target was.

The twins who were crouched behind Tamaki turned to her with tired expressions. "We want to find out where she always runs off to."

She felt a small hand grab hers and, with surprising strength, pull her down behind another bush. Looking over, she saw Hunny was intently staring at her with wide, tear-filled eyes. "And we want to make sure Aoi-chan is safe, ne Takashi?" He sniffled.

Haruhi saw the tall third year nod from behind Hunny. Despite the stoic look on his face, the 6' 2" tall male looked uncomfortable crouched behind his cousin.

She sighed and looked behind her at her last source of source of sanity. Kyouya was leaning on a tree behind the group and taking notes in a folder. "Don't tell me you approve of this?"

"Well, I don't approve of this method. But seeing as how neither you nor Aoi will tell us where she's been running off to these past few weeks, I don't see why we shouldn't find out. Besides if we hadn't seen her today, Tamaki probably wouldn't have started this investigation." And he said it all without looking up once.

Haruhi stared at the cement sidewalk, unknowingly being dragged by the twins as Aoi continued further. All that went through her head was the unfortunate event that started this whole cat and mouse game.

* * *

Haruhi had been once again dragged from her apartment that weekend by the host club. Fortunately for her cousin, they said that no one was home once again, but unfortunately that left her alone with them.

They had taken her all around the little shops in her neighborhood, trying to get a feel for the "commoner lifestyle".

Now it was in the late afternoon and the sky was barely starting to turn orange. They had taken up to drinking some tea and having snacks in a café in the city. The place was small and quaint, and had quite a few customers.

Majority of the members were busy asking her questions about some of the stuff they saw in a grocery store.

"So you eat packaged noodles?" Hikaru asked.

"Why not just have someone make them for you?" Kaoru finished.

Haruhi was at her breaking point for the day. "IT'S BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE CAN'T AFFORD THEIR OWN CHEFS!"

Haruhi twitched as she felt an arm go around her shoulder and pull her into somebody's chest. "Leave my poor daughter alone. At least she isn't lazy like you two!"

The twins just stared at him boredly. ""Milord, you have your own chef, too. Hypocrite.""

They were causing a scene. The witnesses - everyone in the café.

The soft tinkle of the bell on the entrance door broke the tension. The owner, who was standing behind the counter, broke his gaze from the odd group at that table to the person who just walked in.

He saw the familiar figure of a tall, slim, teenage girl with short blonde hair and blue eyes. She wore a black and white striped, long-sleeved, wool tunic that fell off her shoulders. A pair of ink rinse denim skinnys were matched with black low-top converse. She also had an orange scarf around her neck and her lip studs with normal silver spheres. In her hands, she carried a thick rectangular package wrapped in a brown packaging paper.

A smile reached his lips at the familiar face. "Aoi-chan, come in, come in!"

At the name, all seven hosts stopped what they were doing and turned to see a familiar blonde female walking up to the counter with a small smile. Apparently, she hadn't noticed them yet. "Hi, Togusa-san! I have the package you ordered!"

He smiled gently as the young girl handed him his long awaited package. "Ah, thank you. I already paid Konzen-san. Tell him he can get free coffees from here on out. I owe him for holding on to this for me for so long."

She nodded. "I'll tell him." And with that, she turned to leave.

"Aoi-chan!" The blonde tensed at the chorus of four voices. Turning to her left, there on a round table, the entire host club was sitting. Tamaki was smiling goofily, Haruhi was brooding, Hikaru and Kaoru were standing up and waving, Kyouya was making it seem like his coffee was a more interesting subject, Hunny was smiling at her with cake stains all over his face, and Mori nodded at her when they made eye contact.

"Hey guys." She said unenthusiastically and gave a slight wave. "Well, I gotta go!" And with that she took off towards the door only to be stopped by a Hikaru and Kaoru blocking the door.

"Where are you going?" They chorused.

Before they could blink, she slipped between the two and out the door, but not before answering them. "I'll talk to you guys later. Bye!"

The twins blinked as they watched her figure walk down the street. "Whoa."

"She's fast."

Tamaki stood from his seat with a determined expression. "We must find out what she's hiding. She could be in danger or a financial crisis!!"

Kami only knows what was going through his head.

* * *

And so began this little chase. Or investigation, perhaps. Whatever it was, it was hardly discreet seeing as how passersby were staring and their prey knew they were there. But they didn't know that.

Aoi kept a small frown on her face as she continued down a few blocks, completely aware of the scene these guys were causing. Honestly, what girl wouldn't love being stalked by a group of handsome young men?

Aoi.

'_Don't they get the idea that I'm busy?! Cheese and rice, they have no life, yo.'_

Her feet continued down the block and unconsciously started to head toward a small shop. The store had no sign or even a name, but inside the window you could easily see the many shelves of books. The books were all hard covers or bound by old string.

Walking in, the little bell on the door caused a slouched figure at the front counter to sit up quickly; a large, goofy smile appeared on his face.

"Blue-chan! You're finally back!" The young man at the counter was about Aoi's age with slight childish features to his face. His eyes were naturally black, but his bright purple contacts made it hard to tell. His hair was pin straight and fell down to his shoulders in layers. It was black with pink streaks and his bangs fell into his face until you almost couldn't see his face. He had a silver lip ring in the center of his bottom lip and two curved barbells on his left eyebrow.

From what could be seen from his seat, the guy was about six foot exactly and had a very slender cut figure. He wore a long sleeve black shirt with French words spray painted in Old English, and a pair of slightly baggy jeans that were armed with almost a dozen silver chains. Let's just say the guy couldn't sneak up on anybody dressed like that and he was known to get stuck to things in the past.

"I'm glad you're okay!" The male jumped up only to have his chains get caught on the stool he sat on and drag both to the floor roughly. "OMFF!"

Aoi smiled slightly at the goofball and jumped up on the counter and sat Indian style in front of where the boy landed. "You okay, Aku?" It did sound painful.

The only movement the young man made was stuck his arm in the air and gave a thumbs up. That's all she needed.

"What's going on out here?!" Aoi looked towards the door behind the counter and saw a handsome man in his early thirties poke his head out. He had brown hair that was cut short around his face but there was a long layer in the back that was tied in a loose ponytail. His eyes matched the color of his hair. Behind his thin frame glasses, Aoi could see the irritation growing as the man was biting down hard on the cigarette he was currently smoking.

"Aku, I swear if you broke or tore anything, I'm going to skin you." His eyes widened and quickly softened as he saw the blonde on the counter. "Ah, Aoi, you're finally back! How did it go?"

"Good. Togusa-san said that you can get free coffees at the café from now on since you held onto that book for him, Konzen-sensei."

"Hey, it's hard to come across a first edition copy of Saiyuki in its original binding. But since I like the guy, I saved it for him."

The phone inside the office rang, beckoning the man back inside. Aoi turned her attention back to the young man who was pulling himself up with some difficulty. He smiled sheepishly at the girl as he pulled the stool back up.

Something outside the window caught his attention and made him stop abruptly before taking his seat. He turned to the blonde with a confused look on his face. "Did you know that there's a group of guys hiding behind the trees outside?"

"Yep." She answered with a bored expression; her head resting in the palm of her hand which was held up by her elbow on her knee.

"And, I think I saw Haruhi with them." He scratched the back of his neck as his head was starting to hurt.

"Yep, she's with them."

The boy known as Aku guessed it wasn't that big of a deal. "Oh, okay." He shrugged and turned his full attention back to his friend.

* * *

"Do you think he saw us?" Tamaki looked over at the other hosts. When they saw the strange looking male look out the window, the group immediately ducked behind the bushes hoping not to be seen. (Well, Kyouya and Haruhi had to be dragged down.)

Haruhi gave him an irritated glare. "No, why would he see a group of guys sneaking around outside the window like ninjas?" Sarcasm dripped off her words.

"Whew, good." But apparently it wasn't noticed.

Haruhi dropped her head in defeat. "I want to go home."

Hunny watched in interest as the boy inside spoke to Aoi with such enthusiasm and the blonde just listened intently, laughing every once in a while. He glanced at Mori next to him and noticed that the tall host was watching as intently as him.

Mori turned to his cousin and Hunny could see the unasked question on his face. Mori turned his attention to Haruhi, who was still sulking. "Who is he?"

At the deep voice, Haruhi looked at the two cousins. Of course, Mori's talking brought everyone's attention on the three. Even Kyouya, who was hardly paying attention, looked at Haruhi intently. Apparently that question was on everyone's mind.

"What?" Haruhi was confused at this point.

Hunny decided that he should ask the true question on everyone's mind. "Is he her boyfriend?"

Haruhi looked at the group incredulously. "No! Aku has been one of Aoi's best friends since elementary school. The two of them work here together and help Konzen-san sell rare and first edition books."

"Oh!!!"

Kyouya raised an eyebrow at the last bit of information. _'A job? Why would she need a job?'_ He made a mental note of talking to Aoi about it later.

The roar of an engine caught their attention as they all turned around to see a motorcycle pull up behind them. The driver was a young man with black goggles on his eyes, who seemed to be staring at them in confusion. He was slender and quite tall. His hair had been dyed a copper-red color and fell in choppy, spiky layers that framed his relatively dark, tanned skin. He had a red ring pierced into each side of his bottom lip. The guy was completely clad in black, from his t-shirt, to his ripped jeans and skate shoes.

The guy shut off the engine and pulled down his goggles as he leaned the bike on its kick stand. His green contacted eyes still stared at the group in confusion. The hosts didn't know what to do now that they were caught.

The guy turned his full attention to Haruhi, who was waiting for him to do something, and smirked. "Hey, Haru! So, are these guys part of Aku's fan club or Aoi's?"

Haruhi laughed sheepishly and stood up to face him. "Neither. These are the guys from the host club. I'm sure Aoi told you about them."

She turned to the group, who were watching the young man warily. "You guys, this is Itsuki. He's been Aoi's best friend since well, as long as I can remember."

The twins jumped into his face, surprisingly he didn't even blink. They seemed to be studying him really heavily. Their vision switched between him and the two teens in the window. Back and forth. Back and forth. You get the idea. "Why is it that Aoi and her friends like to get holes in their faces?"

The young man named Itsuki smirked almost evilly at them. "We all have our reasons. I, for one, like the way they look. Aku did it cuz it's like a rock star calling card, so it's only right he gets a few. And Aoi, well……..she actually got hers before us. I remember her saying she did it for the initial thrill." He chuckled at the memory as he reached in the pack on the back of his motorcycle. He pulled out a small plastic shopping bag wrapped around the rectangular item inside and a manila envelope.

"Well, I have stuff to do. Later." He lazily waved over his shoulder as he entered into the shop.

The hosts quickly went back in position to see what would happen next.

* * *

Itsuki walked in to find Aoi sitting on the shop counter and Aku on the stool in front of her, telling her a story of some sort with great passion.

"So, like I was saying, she was 400 POUNDS!!"

Itsuki could only raise an eyebrow in confusion. He came in on the ass-end of the conversation and he was more than just a little creeped out. He took his place next to Aoi as the two looked up at him. "What's he talking about now?"

"He has a crush on the new over-weight panda at the zoo." Aoi motioned to the odd boy in front of her.

The red-head had to bite back his laughter. "Hey, Aku, just so you know, bestiality is frowned upon in most societies."

Aoi started laughing and the red-headed male joined her. "Nice one, Ikki!"

Aku pouted childishly at the two and blushed a little. "That wasn't funny, you guys! Besides, she's really cute, I'm telling you!"

Once the two calmed down, Itsuki turned to the blonde and handed her the envelope and bag. "The bag's for you. The envelope goes to Konzen-san, though."

She nodded and took them from him. "Thanks."

"Well, unlike you two bums, my job makes me very busy. Gotta go deliver more crap. Later!" Itsuki turned away from the two waving lazily at them. Aoi and Aku watched as their childhood friend walked out the door and noticed as he stopped outside the window. Aoi could see that her friend was trying not to laugh at something hidden behind the bushes and she had an idea of what it was.

Sighing, she shook her head and turned her attention back to the pink-highlighted young man in front of her. Before she could speak, the back office door opened up as Konzen came back out to talk to the two teens. "Ah, did I just hear that little shit, Itsuki?"

Sparing a glance at each other, they gave their boss an innocent stare. "Noooooo…"

Sighing, the elder man turned to the two. "Well, what did he want?"

Aoi handed over the manila envelope. "Here, Ikki said he had to deliver this to you."

Readjusting his glasses, he opened it and read the letter inside; the other two watching in anticipation. "Hmm." He glanced at his watch and turned to the teens. "Aoi since it's seven already, you can head on home. As for you Aku, I need you to deliver a book to someone at the nearby shrine."

Aku frowned. "But there aren't any shrines that are very 'nearby'! Plus I wanted to walk Aoi home!!"

The older male just scoffed. "I'm sure she'll be fine, what with those guys hiding outside."

The two teens blinked at him blankly. "You knew they were there?!"

"Who wouldn't?"

Aoi chuckled lightly. "You got a point." She jumped off the counter and turned to Aku; plastic bag present in hand. "I'll be fine, Kuu. Call me when you get home, ok?" She watched his pitiful nod as he was dragged into the back of the store by the annoyed employer.

The young blonde shook her head and turned to leave; dreading what was waiting for her outside the door.

* * *

Once outside, the blonde turned and began walking down the street; the hosts close to her tail. "I hope you guys understand that I know you're there."

The group froze. Aoi just heard one of the males sigh. "You all should've figured she did already."

_That_ was obviously Kyouya.

Buzz kill in human form.

Turning around and walking backwards, she saw that the hosts were all standing like normal and brushing leaves off their clothes and continued following her. The twins were the first to catch up to her and speak as she turned to face forward again. "Why didn't you just tell us you had a job?"

She shrugged. "I didn't see why it was on a need-to-know basis."

The twins sighed at this girl's attitude. _'No wonder she's related to Haruhi.'_

Aoi twitched as she saw the blonde bundle of Hunny run in front of her with his big puppy dog eyes burning holes into her soul. "But we're your friends, Aoi-chan! Don't you like us enough to tell us stuff about yourself?"

She sighed and walked around him. "It's got nothing to do with whether I like you guys enough or not. I just don't see why you need to know."

Suddenly, Aoi felt an arm flop onto her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Tamaki staring at her with determination shining in his eyes. "But, we're a family, Aoi! We have to be there for each other! And we need to know everything about each other!"

Aoi gave him an accusing stare, before swatting his arm off. She walked ahead of them without turning back. "All families have their secrets."

And with that, she turned a corner, leaving the others to stand there, staring at where they last saw her in surprise. Haruhi just sighed and shook her head solemnly. _'You still can't let it go, can you?'_

* * *

Aoi chuckled to herself as she read a funny part in the manga Itsuki had just gotten her. (It was the present in the plastic bag.) A melodic tone rang through her dimly lit bedroom, breaking her concentration. It was a ring tone she usually used for numbers she didn't know. So, she just stared at her vibrating, flashing cell phone for a while as it continued to ring.

Realizing whoever was on the other line wasn't going to give up, she sighed and reached over her bed and grabbed it off her night stand.

"Moshi moshi."

"Aoi?" A familiar sleek voice rang through the receiver.

"Kyouya?"

"Un. I needed to speak with you about something."

"Let me guess, you stole my cell phone number by hacking into the school files, huh?"

"Hmm." She could hear the smirk in his voice. She didn't like that fact that this guy needed to speak with her in private so badly he stole her number.

"Well, what do you want?"

She was pretty sure his smirk strengthened. "You do know the rules of Ouran, right?"

"Tch. Yeah, and…..?"

"Then you must know that Ouran students aren't allowed to hold jobs until graduation?"

Aoi flopped onto her bed and sighed tiredly. She knew someone would bring this up at some point. "Yeah, I know."

She must have caught the Ootori off guard, seeing as how he didn't respond for some time. "And?"

"And what? Did you expect me to cave in to something?" She raised an eyebrow in curiosity as she used her unoccupied arm as a pillow.

She heard a sigh on the other side. "You do know that if the school board finds out you have a job, they'll take away your scholarship and kick you out."

"Eh. I still have Shiroken to go back to if it comes down to that."

Kyouya was not liking how this was turning out. He was expecting to squeeze a little bit more profit out of her by using something he had against her. But he didn't expect her to take blackmail in stride. She was really starting to confuse him. He'd have to use something low. "You do know that if you leave….you won't be able to help Haruhi with her debt any longer."

"…." Aoi figured out what he was trying to do. It was dirty and low……but it was smart. Shit. She dug her own grave now. "What do you want?"

"I was thinking we'd switch the amount of customers you need from every 25 to every 40."

Her breath hitched. "WHAT?!"

"What's wrong? Is it too much for you to handle?"

She glared at the little device in her hand that held the voice of the opposing male; hoping it would kill the perpetrator on the spot. Wishful thinking. "Fine. I'll do it."

He smirked at his win.

"But don't think you beat me. I don't like being forced into anything. And it was bad enough when you got me signed up for this club thing."

"Don't worry. You'll live."

"Tch. Easy for you to say."

* * *

**A/N: Yes, Ituski is the same guy on the motorcycle from the second chapter. And I love the way Aku came out. These two will play a deeper part later on. Trust me. So keep them in mind eh.**

**If you haven't noticed the relationships that are already in progress with the main three sides of the triangle, heres a run-down. Aoi's completely oblivious to it. Mori's already interested. And Kyouya's trying not to be interested. I love it. XD**

**Well now that I'm done with this semester of school, and I've already registered for Spring '09 classes, I should have time this winter break to work on these chapters. Sorry for keeping you guys waiting. And I have a Con this weekend, so I'll try to get another chappie up before Friday.**

**Reviews please! 8D**

* * *


	6. Kiss My Sass

**A/N: Okay, so I haven't slept all night!! I really didn't expect to finish this chapter until I took a nap, but I did!! HUZZAH! If anything seems or sounds a little off at the end......well it's cuz I haven't slept all day! YAY!! I'm pretty sure I'll end up crashing sometime soon!**

**Anyways, I realized that Aoi's fighting abilities isn't really talked about much yet, other than her ability to dodge the rose petals. So I decided to bring that in here. And just so you know, this chapter is based off of Episode 10 in the manga! I don't remember what episode it was in the anime.....oh well.**

**Enjoy!!**

**Songs: "Being Alright" by Tsunami Bomb and/or "Rich Girls" by The Virgins**

Chapter Six:

**Kiss My Sass**

Haruhi frowned as her eyes continued to search her homeroom class. She groaned as worry was starting to crease itself in her forehead. "Where is she?"

Aoi had been missing all morning. Haruhi had hoped she was just running a few minutes late and would run in apologizing non-stop to the teacher, but it was already class discussion time and the students were just mingling. Aoi had missed the whole lesson, and usually if she was going to miss school, she would've told Haruhi, but she had yet to hear a word from the blonde.

Hikaru, who was leaning on his brother's desk to her right, looked at her boredly. "Haruhi, don't worry so much."

Kaoru turned to her and looked at her slightly confused. "Hey, don't you and Aoi usually come to school together?"

The brunette female sighed. "Yeah, we do. But today her brother couldn't drop us off, because he had to go to work early. So, I ended up walking here on my own."

Hikaru chuckled to himself. "Maybe Aoi decided to fake sick and not come, since her brother wasn't going to force her up."

Haruhi shook her head at the thought of her cousin playing hooky. As impulsive as the young blonde was, she wasn't really one to miss out on classes. "She wouldn't miss school. Besides I called her when I got here to make sure she was up, and she told me she was just about to head out the door. Something must have happened."

The twins looked at each other in worry. Kaoru patted Haruhi on the head and gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm sure she's fine. Aoi isn't one to worry about. She can take care of herself."

"Yeah, but--"

The conversation was interrupted by the classroom's exaggerate, ornate doors opening. Everyone watched curiously as a blonde head stuck into the room with an apologetic smile on its face. But something was off. It could have been that said blonde had a bruise forming on her left cheekbone, as well as a small bandage on the bridge of her nose.

Walking in, everyone was able to see that she had a few bandages on her middle and ring fingers on her left hand and had her right knuckles completely bandaged. And last but not least, she had a piece of gauze taped onto the right side of her neck and there was a thin line of blood seeping through. The blonde chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry I'm late everyone."

The classroom erupted in concerned questions from everyone. The girls:

"Aoi-kun are you okay?!"

"Did some bully do this to you?"

The guys:

"Whoa! You really took a beating!"

"What a trooper!!"

And the present host club members.

Haruhi ran around everyone who was crowded around her cousin and gently grabbed her hand and pulled her outside into the hallway, the twins trailing behind them.

Aoi turned to the trio and looked at them confused. "What's up guys?"

Haruhi's left eye was twitching so badly that it looked like it would almost pop out of its socket. "What do you mean 'what's up'?! Do you see yourself?!"

Aoi blinked a few times confusedly before looking down at herself and noticed the bandages. "Oh, yeah. These? Well……on my walk here, I saw a few guys roughing up an old woman in an alleyway for her purse, so I stepped in."

The twins smiled widely at the blonde. "You're a hero, Imouto!"

"Yeah, way to go!!"

Haruhi glared at the two harshly. "Don't encourage her." She turned her glare onto the blonde in front of her. "How many is a 'few guys'?"

Aoi flinched slightly at the accusing stare inflicted upon her. "Uh….well, let's see. One, two…." Her blue eyes squinted slightly as she pushed to remember and even started counting on her fingers. "Eight…..Twelve!! Yeah, twelve…or at least around that number. Something like that."

The twins stared at her in surprise. Hikaru was the first to speak up. "You took them all on by yourself?"

"Yeah."

"But that's suicide!!" Kaoru threw himself at her and looked over her wounds.

Haruhi continued to glare at Aoi, but the blonde could see the tears that were starting to prick on the edge of her cousin's brown eyes. "Aoi, you should know better than to take on that many people!! Do you have any idea how worried I was?!"

Aoi sighed as guilt started to build up and she rubbed the back of her head shyly. "Look, _cugina_, you should know by now that even though I may be reckless at times, I know my limit. I know what I can handle in a fight. I'm fine. Just a few battle scars and nothing big."

Haruhi sighed tiredly. It was no use being stubborn against someone who was just as stubborn. "I should stop caring all together."

Aoi smiled her usual wild smile and flung her arms around the shoulders of Haruhi and Hikaru, while she pushed Kaoru lightly with her foot. "Aww, come on. No more worried faces. Let's get back to class before the teacher gets mad."

* * *

"So, what exactly happened to you?" Aoi looked up from re-wrapping her knuckles to see Kyouya standing over her like a hawk. The glint in his eye reminded her of a mother about to scold their child for touching the hot stove when they were told not to. _(Trust me, I've done it. XP)_

"I just got into a little scrap with a few guys that were trying to rob an old lady, Sir Kyouya. Doth not think bad of my attraction to trouble, do ye?" She blinked her electric eyes with sarcastic innocence as she stifled a laugh at the theme of the day.

The hosts were all dressed as European knights and squires. You know the kind you see at Renaissance festivals and wonder how many soup cans it took to make that. Whose idea it was, she had no clue. But she refused to change clothes, seeing as how she didn't want to irritate the hidden bruises on her side. As for Haruhi…..

"Hey, where'd Haru-chan go?" Aoi looked around curiously.

Kyouya leaned his elbow against her arm chair as he kept an eye on the other hosts, who were currently charming their customers. "Hikaru and Kaoru sent her out to get the instant coffee, since they didn't know where she bought it last."

A sigh escaped her lips as she grumbled under her breath. "Lazy, rich bastards."

She watched as the 2nd year male walked away in all his "soup can" glory. Her cerulean eyes wandered around the room to all the different hosts. Kyouya had allowed her to have the day off due to her injuries, but she felt bad that she was just taking up space and not really helping. So she was spending her time watching the others court their ladies, mostly Tamaki since he seemed to be having the best time in his new persona……well actually his persona was pretty much the same.

"Ah, princess, even if the world ends, I wish to be your knight, protecting you with all my life." Aoi twitched as the said blonde male took his guest's hand and put it to his lips. She was starting to feel blinded by the sparkling roses that seemed to appear out of thin air every time he spoke.

"Master Tamaki!" The young girl blushed in his hands and only left Aoi to wonder if these girls swooned over crap like this, how would they react to the pickup lines her friends and brother would use?

Aoi contemplated about this for a while and watched blankly as each of the customers were slowly drifting out of the club. Her thoughts had been broken however by a young girl's voice, who for once didn't swoon over what Tamaki had said.

"Hmm. Is that so? But isn't 'to protect with my life' quite a selfish vow?" She looked over to where the voice came from, which was surprisingly at her own table, to see a young girl not much older than herself, with light buttermilk hair that fell in soft waves. She was slowly sipping some of the tea that had been set down at Aoi's table.

'_When did she get here?!'_

"Do you think the girl left behind would be happy?" The girl continued. Aoi watched in curiosity as she felt the other hosts turn their attention on the new addition as well.

"It can't be helped, Miss Suzuran. Men are lowly creatures who value their pride above all." Another female voice, this one slightly more higher pitched, rang from the other side of Aoi. She turned in surprise to see a younger looking girl with a light brown chin-length bob of tendrils eating the cookies on her table.

Aoi glared slightly between the two. "Yeah, sure. Just magically appear out of thin air and help yourselves to my snacks." She mumbled under her breath. Whoever these girls were, it didn't matter. They were already getting on her nerves.

The two didn't seem to even notice she was there as the young one continued in her rant. "They can't even protect themselves, and yet they believe women owe them something for it."

"Wow, Hinagiku is so smart!"

She looked up and sweat dropped as Tamaki made his way over to the area, his princely charm in place. _'Oh god. He'll only embarrass himself now.'_

"That's a rather strict view. What kind of vow would you prefer?" He said as he bowed to the two females.

"Well, I would never leave her alone." Another voice?! Aoi turned in surprise, along with everyone else in the room, to the club entrance to see a…….young man? No…..a young woman with dark short hair that was slicked back and out of her face. She was definitely older looking but looked to be about the same size as Aoi. Not to mention she happened to have an arm wrapped around Haruhi's shoulder. Aoi's poor cousin had a paper grocery bag and a look of so much complete obliviousness that the blonde could only shake her head in response.

The he-she thing continued. "If we fight, we fight together. If fate decrees, let's die in each other's arms."

Tamaki was freaking out at this point. "Haru--?!"

Suddenly, the girl hanging on Haruhi's shoulder dropped onto one knee and brought Haruhi's hand up to her lips. "I swear to never leave your side, even after my final breath…"

This action caused the remaining girls to squeal in delight…..and caused Tamaki to shriek in horror. "WHAT?!!"

Aoi looked back at the girl only to find that she had been joined by the other two from earlier. The blonde looked back to their now empty seats in surprise as an outline of their forms blinked in her face. "Huh. They're sure excited to see her."

She turned back to see the younger one glomp the eldest. "You're late, Master Benibara!"

The one with the light colored hair was inspecting Haruhi, while scolding the oldest at the same time. "What a troublemaker you are……and where'd you find somebody so cute?"

"Ah, right over there. Even with her disguise, I knew right away. Look at those bright female eyes."

"Really, such potential! She'll shine when polished…." The light haired one spoke as she, as well as her other companions, were invading Haruhi's personal bubble.

"Her skin is flawless!" The young one squealed.

Aoi could only blink confusedly in her seat as she watched the girls molest her cousin. "I've realized the longer I stay here, the weirder this stuff seems to turn."

Aoi had started to ignore the group, and was only capable of catching a few moments. The oldest girl had pushed Tamaki off Haruhi rather forcefully and caused the idiot king to cry. The three did some kind of costume change sequence and revealed themselves to be three students from the Saint Roberia Institute. Aoi only returned to a 'normal' state of mind when they mentioned that they were part of…

"THE ZUKA CLUB!!"

'_Yuri? As in like lesbians?'_ Aoi continued to just get further confused…..and she just sighed. "Whatever."

The light haired one, known as Maihara Chizuru, started what seemed to be a practiced speech. "A woman's beauty lies in a pure mind…unyielding to superficial beauty, power, or lust..."

The youngest one, known as Tsuwabaki Hinako, continued. "'Because you're female…' 'Even though you're female…' I am disgusted by men's discrimination against women!"

And the oldest, Amakusa Benio, finished. "Sisterhood is pride. Because we are of the same gender, we are all equal in our souls, for example…even a romantic relationship can be…an equilateral triangle."

The twins who had tired themselves with laughing at the trio were playing games, boredly I might add. ""Just go home already.""

Aoi sighed and scowled slightly as she finally spoke up. "Okay, I can only stand so much of this shit." Everyone in the room turned in surprise at the blonde's language. She was sitting backwards in her arm chair, propped up on her knees so she could see over the back of the chair, her arms crossed and resting on the top.

"You all confuse me so fucking much. You ….girls." She pointed her extended right index finger at the trio. "You guys have no right to accuse Tamaki-baka of anything!"

She sighed as she continued to flail her arms about to prove a point. Aoi held up a finger as if in a form of matter of fact. "I read somewhere that 'falling in love is not an act of will. It is not a conscious choice. No matter how open or eager for it we may be, the experience may still elude us. Contrarily, the experience may capture us at times when we are definitely not seeking it, when it is inconvenient and undesirable.' Love is something that is just going to jump up and bite us in the ass one day when we least expect it. We're only teenagers for Reita's sake! We still have all the time in the world to fall in love, so why raise your hopes in saying what you feel is love. You'll know it when it happens, for now you guys are the one's selling false love, not Tamaki. Our customers know that the relationship we hold with them, only last a good 20 minutes, depending on what they pay."

Aoi was standing at this point and slowly making her way to the girls. "These girls ask for our company and we just comply. If you're so tired of the presence of men, then why come here, to a place that obviously houses men?"

Each member of the host club had a small smile on their faces. Aoi was obviously annoyed by these girls and she wasn't going to take them waltzing in here lightly.

Unfortunately, Aoi got a reaction she wasn't expecting.

"Such a fiery, intelligent, passionate personality! And such a good-looking young girl!" The three jumped her and were grabbing in all different kinds of places….and Aoi was well….scared.

"Such beautiful, natural blonde hair!"

"Look at her cheek bones! AMAZING!!"

"Look how deep her eyes go, like endless pools!"

Aoi felt two large hands grab onto her shoulders gently and pull her from the tangle of girls easily and she turned her still horror-stricken eyes on her savior: Mori. "Did I just get laid?"

The tall brunette just stared at her curiously as he put her down. The blonde flinched slightly from a pain in her right side. She rolled up her shirt a little to show a large deep purple bruise that was starting to turn a little green around the edges on her ribs. Mori frowned slightly. "Are you okay?"

Hearing his deep voice reminded her that he was still right there. She gingerly put her shirt back down and nodded to him. "I'm fine. I think those chicks just irritated it a little."

Before he could nod back at her, Aoi was grabbed around the neck and hugged against two chests with ….well…boobs. _(A/N: I laughed when I typed that. XD)_ Looking behind her she saw that the two younger girls from the Zuka Club had taken her prisoner. And Haruhi was not in the best position either, seeing as how she was held onto by Benio.

"I cannot keep these ladies at this club, knowing its current state. It was bad enough that the small one was kept here beyond her will, but you keep another one prisoner and you keep her in such bad shape, too!"

"Uhh." Aoi raised a finger to interject. "But they didn't—"

"I will start the transfer process immediately..."

Aoi glared at the older girl. _'Stop ignoring me, you bitch!'_

"And welcome them into the Zuka Club!"

Aoi jumped in surprise. "WHAT?!"

While Haruhi waved her arms in defense and tried to find a reason not to transfer. "Wait…wait a minute!" She pulled away from the Zuka leader and Aoi shook off the other two. "There seems to be some misunderstanding like the idea of the host club having a shallow history."

Hikaru cut her off. "No. It is shallow. This institution is only two years old."

Kaoru following. "Milord created it when he started high school."

Haruhi tried to ignore them and continue. "And I've never heard of Tamaki being half-European."

Mori brought Hunny over and placed him down next to her. "No. Tamaki is half-European. His parents are French and Japanese."

Haruhi was losing her strength but yet she still continued. "You, er, say greed, but it's not like we're taking fees from the customers."

And here comes Kyouya to the kill…uh, I mean, the rescue? "It's more like a point system, based on the amount the girls buy from our club auction site. Look, Haruhi…"

The two girls looked over to his laptop. "Your used mechanical pencil has gone for $273."

And Haruhi was not happy about this. "WHAT?! I THOUGHT I LOST THAT PENCIL!!" She growled.

'_Way to sell yourselves up the bloody creek, you idiots.'_

"And Aoi, one of your lip studs that had fallen off went for $485."

Aoi twitched as she saw the picture of her gold and orange swirl stud ball on the computer. "That was my favorite one, you bastard."

Kyouya just shrugged as the two females continued to glare at him. "The profit is virtually non-existent, seeing as how it's used for club activities"

Haruhi wasn't having this. "That doesn't give you the right to sell other people's belongings!!"

Identical voices chorused together and broke their glare. ""It's not stealing. We found them on the ground.""

The two turned and growled as the twins immediately went back to sipping tea.

Aoi growled even more as Tamaki threw himself in front of Haruhi and was trying to get her to use his stupid bear pen. _'Yeah, sure. Don't even apologize to me or try to make it up to me. Stupid love-sick king! Just kiss her already, damn!'_

"You poor things! You must be shocked learning of this deceit." Chizuru cooed at the two.

"Dump these scoundrels and come with us!!" The young one squealed.

"Wait, Hinagiku. The young ladies are still in shock." Benio spoke the truth. The two cousins stood there staring into space. Haruhi looked ready to just jump out the window and Aoi was thinking if it was legal to skin a human being or four. Mori and Hunny were seemingly innocent.

The three girls took off for the door, but not before having the last word. "We'll come back tomorrow. We hope to receive a good answer."

The two groups left stood in a tense silence: the two females in boy's clothing on one side, and the group of males waiting for the two to say something.

Haruhi turned to the group sharply causing them to jump. Turning back towards the door, she grabbed the immobile Aoi's jacket sleeve and made for the door. "I think we'll take our leave for today."

Aoi allowed herself to be pulled towards the door and just before she slipped out behind her cousin, she turned to the group sharply, causing them to jump again. She turned back around, slamming the door behind her.

The boys all glanced at each other before hanging their heads. _'They're mad at us!'_

* * *

Aoi leaned her head back against the wall. She was sitting just out the door of the club room. She watched as Haruhi looked around the hallway, bored. The two girls were waiting. They had been standing outside the third music room for some time now. "I wonder if we were too harsh on them yesterday. The guys _have_ been acting weird all day."

The brunette sighed and turned to her cousin. "You got a point, but it wasn't like either of us was really mad. We were just in shock."

Aoi was having another off day. If it hadn't been made obvious with the muffin incident a couple chapters back, Aoi had a few OCD tendencies. Especially when it came to her early morning routines. This morning was odd, since when she came down stairs for breakfast, she found her older brother wearing a sexy maid outfit and smeared make-up on his face. Apparently, the night before, he lost a bet and had to go to a bar all dolled up like that and hadn't gotten any sleep since then. The shock had worn off quickly, and she had laughed until she was crying. She was just glad he changed before taking her to school. It was an epic moment in her book but it was still a traumatizing factor, hence the fact that she felt off that morning.

The feeling followed her the whole day through school, as she noticed that the hosts all seemed as if they wanted to say something to her and her cousin, but seemed too afraid to even utter a syllable. Apparently, the boys had wanted the two of them to wait for the Zuka Club to return, and enter with them.

Aoi dropped her head in defeat. "Why do we have to wait for the rapist chicks to get here?"

"How should I know?"

The sound of footsteps echoed into the hall as the two turned towards the noise. Speak of the devils. The Zuka Club, in all their Roberia glory, made their way up to the two girls with smiles on their faces that made Aoi cringe slightly.

"Greetings, ladies! We're here as promised!" The one named Hinagiku waved at the two.

Aoi stood up and dusted the seat of her pants as she looked anywhere but at the girls. It's obvious to say they made her uncomfortable after the "attack".

"Were you waiting out here for us?" Benio asked expectantly.

"No, the guys told us to come in with you when you arrived. They've been acting weird all morning." Haruhi explained plainly.

Aoi scoffed. "That's an understatement." The group of girls turned towards the doors and opened them, Aoi still dodging those damn Rose petals.

"Welcome."

All the females stared blankly at the group. Hikaru, Kaoru, and Hunny had taken it upon themselves to dress in Victorian style dresses. They even had make-up and wigs on. As for Tamaki, Kyouya, and Mori, they were dressed as Victorian gentlemen. They had everything from the stiff collars, to the lace, and shoulder pads. And they had added the touch of a huge feather peacock tail-like contraption.

The Zuka Club jumped in horror as the "girls" raced over to the group. Haruhi just jumped in shock. Aoi hadn't moved……or blinked for that matter.

"Ah, Haruhi, Aoi, welcome!" The twins chimed.

Hunny bounced up to the two and smiled widely at them. "Lookie, I'm a princess! Aren't I cute?"

The Zuka Club girls were outraged. "What is the meaning of this?! Do you mean to insult our culture?!"

Tamaki bowed in his usual graceful manner. "Insult?! Absolutely not! This is all according to plan! A super secret plan that will even make crying kids smile!"

Aoi unconsciously twitched, seeing as how her motor skills were shot. _'What the hell is he blah-blah-blahing about?'_

The blonde male flourished his arms causing glitter to fly out……don't ask. "The 'Two Tastes in One' Plan! You protected girls of Roberia probably won't understand this, but the common folk have a weakness for bargains. Haruhi and Aoi may feel attracted to the Zuka Club, yes. However,"

He turned to the now rejoined group of delicately dressed hosts, who actually posed majestically. "If they choose our club, they'll have brothers AND sisters! Two for One! They can enjoy a Zuka Club atmosphere while at the Host Club!"

The twins bounded up to Haruhi with identical smiles. "How's this, Haruhi? Who's more beautiful, your dad or us?"

Hunny came up to Aoi and stood on the tips of his toes to reach Aoi's height. "Ne, Aoi, you can call me 'Big Sis'."

"These young ladies will not be fooled by some drag act! Cease this idiotic--" The Zuka leader's rant was interrupted by a strange squeak emitted from the tiny brunette.

Everyone watched as Haruhi curled up into a fetal position and was holding onto Aoi's pant leg. Looking up, Kyouya noticed that Aoi still hadn't moved from her spot.

He waltzed over and watched her face closely. "Aoi?" This called everyone's attention up to the blonde. Kyouya raised an eyebrow in confusion as he saw a small tear leak from her eye. Then the blonde bit down on her bottom lip as her shoulders began to tremble slightly.

Suddenly, the blonde burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. "HAHAHAHAHAH! Oh my-HAHAHAHAHA!"

A chuckle followed not too far behind, as Haruhi finally let it out. "I knew-hehe-that you guys were silly…" Aoi fell over next to her cousin as the two of them leaned on each other for support. "This is the limit-hehehehe-it's so illogical!"

Aoi started to tear up as her laughter continued. "Is cross-dressing the fad for the day?! HAHAHAHAH! My older brother alone was bad enough, HAHAHAHA, but you guys too?!"

"Is it that funny?" The "girls" sang.

The three spare glances before they smiled with a new idea. They chased the two girls around, egging on their new womanly behaviors.

Finally the two girls' laughter slowed down. Haruhi turned to Benio while Aoi still chuckled lightly behind her. The tiny brunette smiled up at the taller female. "I'm sorry. It takes all kinds and I think your unique way of looking at life is….interesting, but….I have a dream I want to fulfill. That's why I came to Ouran. I've never had any intention of leaving."

Benio looked over at the blonde girl behind her, who was still giggling under her breath. Noticing the girl's scrutiny, she leaned on Haruhi's head and rolled her eyes. "As much as I hate to admit it, I'd rather stay here. I have nothing against the way you do things at Roberia, it's just I don't think I'd survive very long at an all girls school. That would mean that the only male I spent the most time with would be my older brother, and that's not something to look forward to."

Tamaki was jumping with joy until something caught his train of thought. "Wait! If you never meant to leave, why'd you get all upset yesterday?!"

Haruhi blinked up at him twice. "You sold our belongings, of course I was mad. Besides I had to get to the supermarket for a sale."

He glanced at Aoi, who just stared at him blankly. "I wasn't really upset; I was just in shock more or less. And Haruhi just happened to drag me along to the market with her." The girl shrugged carelessly.

Aoi watched as the Zuka girls were brooding. "We won't give up. I swear to you both, I will rescue you and destroy the Host Club!"

The blonde shook her head at the departing group and looked over as Tamaki started crying because Haruhi wouldn't accept his pen. She blew up her bangs before turning to Mori, who had stepped up beside her. She smiled wildly at him. "Well, don't you look spiffy, Mr. Samurai."

She chuckled as he smiled lightly at her. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small plastic bag and handed it to her. She blinked at it a few times before taking it in her hands and opening it. Inside was a small plastic cube-like box and inside that was a replacement stud that had orange and gold swirls.

"Is this for me?"

"Yes."

She smiled softly at him. "You went and got a replacement for me?"

He nodded this time, and she took notice of a small tint of pink on his cheeks. Her smile widened as she placed the present in her jacket pocket. Usually a replacement stud, only cost chump change, but the fact that he went through the trouble to get one exactly like her old one for her, made her happier than anything.

"Thanks!"

He smiled at her and placed his hand on her head. Suddenly, something came to mind. "You mentioned your brother earlier?"

She looked up to see his amused yet slightly confused face and smiled and chuckled nervously. "It's a long story."

**A/N: So I decided to add in a little MoriXAoi fluff in there ;) And that little thought Aoi had about Tamaki kissing Haruhi, it's cuz she already thinks he likes her but she isn't saying anything yet.**

**The little excerpt that Aoi quotes is from an essay called "Why We Fall in Love" by M. Scott Peck. I had to read that in Comp. and Rhetoric 1. It's actually pretty good. And yes, lip stud replacements are like a dollar or two. **

**I've realized I never thanked my reviewers. So THANK YOU REVIEWERS!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!! and I've gotten a review about when the host club will meet her brother. Well I hope this will answer your question.**

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Preview for next chapter:

**"We're gonna have a few more people coming over."**

**"What? Like Aku?"**

**"Worse."**

**

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Reviews would be much loved and appreciated! Tell me what you think.**

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	7. Smoke Detector

**A/N: Holy crepe! I can't believe I actually updated this nearly a year since the last time I updated. I feel soooooooooooooooo bad. I'm sorry you guys. This past year has been rough on me. Trust me, you don't wanna know. Anyways, I finally got this up and I'm happy that I did. It feels like a weight is lifted off my shoulders and I only hope I don't take this long for the next chapter either. **

**I love all my readers who stuck by me, and don't hate me cause I took so long to get this up. Here you go, you guys enjoy.**

**Songs for this chapter: "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead (great song!) and/or "Get Well Soon" by Reggie and the Full Effect (totally different songs, but I was obsessed with these while I wrote this.)**

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**Chapter Seven:**

_Smoke Detector_

Aoi walked down the sidewalk, her white, slightly scuffed, Doc Martins clunked down the street. A plastic grocery bag full of spices, mushrooms, noodles and a tiny bag with tomatoes lightly tapped her left leg with each step she took. She wore a pair of form fitting jeans that cut off a little below her knees. They looked as if the pants themselves just went through a war, cut up in all different places, torn in the knees, and a huge hole where the left back pocket should have been; now all that could be seen was the bright green tights underneath that followed all the way into her boots. She wore a black and orange striped button-up sweater and what could be seen as a white shirt with a few torn holes in the stomach and a purple tank underneath.

She ran a hand through her spiky hair and sighed loudly. The crisp air turned her breath into a small puff of smoke that fogged up the silver rings on her lip. She used her middle finger to pick up her thick, slightly transparent, orange, oval glasses. The once purple bruise she had gotten on her left cheek a week ago was now just a yellow line on her cheekbone, but she wore it with pride.

Aoi made her way up the familiar steel steps and stopped in front of an even more familiar door. She rapped her right knuckles on the door lightly, getting a muffled "coming!" as an answer.

She waited patiently as she heard footsteps make their way to the door. It opened to reveal Haruhi in what would be considered normal compared to her cousin. Haruhi wore a light brown sweater and a normal pair of denim jeans and black dress shoes.

The blonde smiled down on her shorter counterpart and turned back towards the stairs. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

The two made their way down out of the apartment complex and down the street. Aoi walked with a slight hop in her step and had her arms crossed behind her head, the bag hanging loosely behind her back. Haruhi followed on her right with her hands stuffed into her pockets. "So, I'm guessing you're excited that he's coming back, huh?"

The blonde nodded enthusiastically and smiled so wide it seemed her cheeks would rip apart. "I'm sooo excited! It's been what, a good month since he came back?"

Haruhi nodded slowly with a contemplative expression. "I think so. I think you're right. Sora knows I'm coming over too, doesn't he?"

Aoi's electric eyes glanced over at her cousin before smiling at her warmly. "Of course, actually it was his idea for you to come over this time."

The two suddenly heard wheels burn against the tar of the street. Both turned behind them to see a black limo take after them around the corner and stop next to them. Aoi blinked at it while Haruhi tried with all her might to pull her cousin away, and not succeeding to move the blonde even an inch.

The door opened and before the girls could tell who was in it, a blur of blonde hair tackled the pair to the ground. "AOI, HARU-CHAN!"

Tilting her head downward, her blue eyes caught those of warm brown puppy dog eyes. Hunny. He clung onto the waists of both girls and smiled widely at them. "Where are you going?" The tiny third year asked before being lifted by his cousin. The rest of the host club followed one by one out of the limo.

Standing up and dusting the seat of their pants, the girls gave the group of males a wary stare. Haruhi was the first to answer. "No where important."

The twins jumped forward and grabbed the brunette into a sandwich hug, the both of them smirked at her evilly. "You know you can't hide anything from us, Haruhi."

"Yeah, we'll find ways to squeeze it out of you."

Aoi blinked at the trio as images of torture and sadomasochism enter the chasm of her overactive imagination. She shuddered off the thought and kept walking in her previous direction, knowing that all eyes were on her. "We're going to my house for a little dinner."

She tensed at the sound of multiple footsteps behind her. She turned around but continued walking, facing backwards. Aoi quirked an eyebrow at the group that followed her, and watched as the twins dragged a disgruntled Haruhi. "Where exactly do you guys think you're going?"

Tamaki strode forward to catch up to Aoi's pace. "We're coming along. You and you're family might need our help with dinner."

The blonde female gave them a deadpan stare from behind her lenses. "You guys…..are gonna help?" Would you believe that the Ouran Host Club would help with stuff like this? Aoi knew better.

"Well, we won't help you per se." Hikaru stated from Haruhi's left.

"We'll just be there for support." Kaoru finished from the brunette's right.

"Well, damn. I just feel the love overflowing here." Aoi could nearly taste the sarcasm as the words dripped from her lips. As she turned, she was startled as Hunny once again jumped up to her eye level, staring at her intensely. "What?"

The tiny blonde blinked his large eyes up at her. "I didn't know you wore glasses."

She sighed and kept a neutral face. "My eyesight isn't perfect. Usually, I wear contacts, but on some occasions, I don't have the desire to stab myself in the eye." And with that she set off reluctantly, with the group of idiots following behind.

Sighing, she reached into her back right pocket, being the only one she had left, and pulled out her cell phone. Pressing and holding down the number three, the phone began to dial an all too familiar number.

"Pronto, blu!" came a slightly husky male voice.

"Come va, fratello." The two Takeuchis continued speaking Italian, leaving the hosts to listen in with confusion written on their faces.

"_We have a slight problem."_

"_A problem?"_

"_We're gonna have a few more people coming over."_

"_What? Like Aku?"_

"_Worse."_

The boys all watched as Aoi continued on her foreign conversation with whoever was on the other line. Kyouya had made it a personal note to learn Italian and quickly. Who knows what she could be talking about?

"_Yes, I bought the rest of the ingredients!"_

"_Will there be enough food though?"_

"_There should be, we always have leftovers that last us a good week."_

"_We're too used to cooking for more people, huh?"_

"_Yep."_

The hosts followed the Italian speaking girl as she continued to travel down roads. They noticed that the neighborhoods changed from apartment complexes, to small yet quaint houses, and then to neighborhoods filled with relatively large houses. They figured the people that lived in them, were well off but not rich, because even for them, they were too small.

Aoi sighed as she finally ended her phone call and continued towards the direction of her home. She stopped at a cross walk, where there was a blinking red hand stopping them all from crossing. She turned around to look at the hosts behind her and gave them a dry look over her lenses. "Do you guys really want to see my home that bad?"

She inwardly groaned as they all nodded together.....seriously. Turning, the blonde female made her way across the street and continued down the sidewalk. Finally after a few more minutes and some complaints from the rich bastards behind her, she stopped in front of a three story house that was built in traditional Japanese form. It even had a large stone and bamboo gate around the front yard. She reached into her front pocket and pull out a set of keys. A rather large set of keys, everyone noticed. Haruhi was used to it, so she made no comment about it. They others on the other hand, were a different story. "What's with all the keys?!" The twins yelled out.

Aoi slipped one in the lock of the front gate and turned it, unlocking the door. "Well, I have a lot of things under lock. Besides, I like the sounds they make." The others stared confusedly, as she smiled and jingled the ring, before pushing the door open and walking in.

Her front yard was relatively simple; a large lawn with small hedges under the house front windows. They had a stone driveway, with a very nice neon green and midnight blue convertible Porsche, that looked completely out of place, as well as a smaller stone walkway leading to the front porch.

Reaching the front door, Aoi used the same key to unlock the front door. Before pushing the door open, she turned to the group following her and pointed her finger accusingly. "No monkey business. Today's a special day. So….don't blow anything up."

The twins and Hunny smiled innocently at her, Kyouya and Mori just nodded, and Tamaki threw himself at her. "We wouldn't do anything bad! We'll be on our best behavior." Aoi pulled away from him and reluctantly pushed the door open.

Once inside, the group took in that the entryway was modern compared to the style the house was built in. But Aoi faltered in her steps and stopped suddenly, causing the group to watch her in confusion. She looked around tensely, and slowly reached for the small vase that was on the small side table. The others gulped and stood on high alert. What she was so tense about, they had no idea.

Suddenly, she pitched the vase and ended up striking a tall person, who unfortunately walked by at that exact moment. "ARGH!!!"

The group stood in shock as Aoi moved towards the writhing brunette male on the floor. Finally looking up, they saw that he was a young man in his early twenties with chocolate brown hair and the same electric blues as Aoi, and also that he only gained a rather large bruise on his left temple. The girl bent down to pick up something the man dropped, before stepping over him so that she was standing practically on top of him and crouching down to his level.

The group watched quietly, Haruhi just stared boredly, as Aoi looked at the young man with a blank expression. "Sora?"

"Hmm…?" The young man answered back innocently.

"What's this?" Aoi continued to stare at him as she held up a half used, lit cigarette. She stuck it dangerously close to his face, causing Sora to lean away from it.

"A lit cigarette?" He chuckled uneasily, shifting his attention from the cigarette to his sister's blank face. He was royally screwed.

"Good~! Now what's it doing inside the house?" There was no emotion on the blonde's face, yet the host club felt the hostility in the air and the pure terror in the older male's eyes.

"Ano, I was smoking it?" He flinched slightly, before realizing she still hadn't moved. "And I'm not supposed to be……sorry."

She sighed at how pitiful her brother could really be. She put out the butt on the tile floor and stood up, still staring at her brother's fallen form. "For the last time, you can smoke in the front yard; you can smoke in the back yard, but NEVER in the house. I don't care about second hand smoke, but I'd like this house not to catch on fire, kay?" She smiled innocently, which still sent a shiver down Sora's spine. He knew a threat when he heard one.

She walked off but not before stepping on her brother's stomach and headed for the kitchen, leaving the hosts to stare incredulously at the, now once again, writhing male. He glanced at the group through a squinted eye and waved a dismissive hand. "You can just go around me; I'll be there in a minute." He squeaked out.

Haruhi was the first, having been used to these kinds of shenanigans, to walk around the man and follow behind her cousin. The group took turns individually walking around him, or over him, careful not to hurt him in anyway.

"'Ppreciate it~!" The floored man squeaked out from behind them.

They stood at the entrance of the rather large living room. There was a large black modern looking, curving sectional couch which filled most of the room with about seven large, white pillows. It sat in front of a wall hanging plasma screen TV which was hooked up to a BluRay player and a surround sound system that was hung from the ceiling.

The walls of the living room were painted a sage green as light filtered in from the glass doors on the farthest wall, giving the hosts a peek at a backyard full of Japanese oak, green grass, and a small Koi pond by the entrance.

Connected to the living room was the kitchen. This kitchen was vast, compared to any normal person's kitchen. Then again, they weren't normal at all. It was like that in a high class restaurant. All the appliances, drawers, and cabinets were made of a dark chrome finish. The stove had an unnatural eight burners rather than four. An island sat in the middle of the room, with pots and pans of all shapes, sizes, and styles hanging from a contraption above it. Not to mention an extensive wine cellar kept behind a glass door on the other side of the kitchen that stood next to a pair of white double doors.

The group watched as Aoi walked into the lively kitchen. The heavenly aroma washed over them as they followed her, finally catching sight of the multiple pots on the stove that seemed to be the source of the smell, and the older man, who couldn't have been over seventy stirring one of the dishes. He would've stood at just under six feet had it not been for his slight hunch. He had thinning white hair and oval glasses that hid his warm gray eyes. He turned at the sound of Aoi placing the bag she was carrying on the island among the other ingredients. The older man smiled lightly at the troupe standing in the kitchen entryway.

"This is our family's caretaker, Watari Heihachi. He's been with us, practically forever. As for our newest carpet, that's my older brother, Sora." She smirked as the boys all shuddered slightly at the episode that occurred not but a few minutes ago.

"Funny." A voice called from behind them. As the older male walked around them, the hosts were capable of getting a good look at him. The tall male had contrasting dark brown hair that fell in soft messy waves to his shoulders. His electric blue eyes shined as bright as his sister's, even though a purple bruise the size of Mount Fuji was growing on the side of his head. He wore a dark gray, long sleeve, V-neck, knit sweater. The edges of his sleeves were worn out and torn as if from endless days of nervously biting on it. He would have stood at a staggering six foot three had it not have been for him clutching his stomach lightly. His jeans were slim yet still slightly baggy and had been worn in to the point that it was littered with bleach stains, coffee stains, burn marks, and massive tears. He stood slightly hunched over, barefoot, and tired.

After taking his place next to his sister, he smiled at Haruhi, who had curiously found her way over the stove to see what Watari was stirring. "How are you, Cugina?"

She turned around, revealing her starry eyes. "This smells wonderful!"

Watari chuckled lightly at her faraway look, before Sora answered boredly. "It's just Marinara sauce."

Aoi rolled her eyes as her brother turned to the group of young men, who she could tell wanted nothing more than to curiously wander.

"So, you lot are the guys who are forcing my little sister and cousin to cross dress." He chuckled to himself. "Not that it would be too hard, seeing as how painfully androgynous the two are."

"Speak for yourself Mr. 'It's not Guacamole, I'm exfoliating'!"

Ignoring his sister, Sora pushed all of the teens out into the hallway. "Now, now, Aoi-pii, you should be a good hostess and show your friends around the house. We got the food."

"But-"

"No buts. Just be and ass and get moving." He yelled before zipping inside the kitchen.

'_Asshole.'_

She turned to the group behind her to see all the boys, including Kyouya and Mori, smiling. Yeah, creepy. And Haruhi looked like she wanted to go back into the kitchen, BADLY.

"What?"

The twins' smiles became visibly evil as Hikaru spoke. "Well, show us around, Aoi-chan."

"Yeah," His brother continued. "You don't want to be considered a bad hostess, right?"

She gave them a tired look before her attention was drawn to Kyouya as he stepped forward. "You really should get moving." He smiled sadistically sweet at her.

Aoi glared at the group before making her way up the stairs that sat in an alcove to the left of her kitchen. She grumbled profanities as she stomped on each wooden step up, the group following behind her.

Upstairs was a small family room. In the center, stood a glass coffee table with two identical black couches on either side, facing each other. A large window across the room from the stairs gave a view of the front yard. Two hallways stood to both their left and right sides of the stairs.

It was then that Tamaki noticed the wooden shrine in the corner of the room. His approach was ignored as Aoi spoke up. "This is our upstairs living room. We only use this room if my dad has guests or if me and Sora are in trouble. The hall to the left has my room, Watari's room, and an extra bathroom. The one on the right has Sora's room, my dad's room, and the study."

"Who's this?" Tamaki called out, causing the group to turn to where he pointed at two pictures on the shrine; an incense stick burning for both.

"That's my mom." She gestured to the picture on the right. The picture showed a lovely woman with lightly tanned skin and dark brown hair, rivaling that of Sora, and pretty hazel eyes. Her hair was pin-straight and fell to her shoulders with a neat fringe pushed to the side. She wore a pink cardigan and was smiling a familiar wild smile at the camera. "She died when I was eight."

"And that," She gestured to the picture on the left, "is my oldest brother, Kazuki." The remaining picture was of a teenage boy, not much older than them. He had dirty blonde hair that was styled in a massive spikey mess that ended at his shoulders. He had electric blue eyes, just like his younger siblings, and wore the usual public high school uniform for boys; a straight collared black jacket. His smile was just as wolfish as his siblings' and his mom's. It was obvious now where they got it from. "He passed away when I was ten."

Mori was the first to notice how reserved she'd gotten since Tamaki brought up the shrine. Her face may have been blank, but her eyes vividly reflected the pain, the sadness, all of the betrayal she was really experiencing. He was too busy watching her, that he didn't have time to stop his cousin.

"How did they die?"

The tall host unconsciously flinched at his cousin's innocent question. He should've been paying more attention.

The group watched as she tensed and turned towards the left hallway, leaving her back to face them. Haruhi watched Aoi worriedly and ran a tired hand through her brown locks. "My mom was sick, and my brother just made some bad choices." She answered tiredly "Come on, I'll show you my room."

Haruhi sighed sadly as she followed her cousin down the hall. The males, who were still standing in the family room, glanced worriedly at each other. Hunny was the first to quickly take after them, the group following behind him.

Hunny ran around the girls and stopped in front of Aoi, who stopped as well and stared at him, shocked. "I'M SORRY, AOI-CHAN!! Please don't be mad at me!! I'll let you hold Usa-chan, if it'll make you feel better!"

She blinked as he stuck the familiar pink rabbit, that seemed to come out of nowhere, up to her height. She smiled softly and took the rabbit into her arms and hesitantly squeezed it to her chest. The hosts watched as she closed her eyes and actually began to relax. She slowly opened her eyes and smiled her usual wild grin at the smallest host, who returned it with his own. "Thanks, Hunny-kun. I needed that."

She started to hand back the plushy only to have the small blonde shake his head. "You can borrow him for today. I trust you with him. Plus, I think you need him more than I do right now."

She held the rabbit gently in the crook of her left elbow; Usa-chan's arms hung over her curved arm in order to keep balance. Aoi lightly smirked at the group that was watching her curiously. "Come on, my room's not much farther."

Haruhi followed behind her cousin before she stopped when she noticed only one person was following her: Hunny. The rest of the hosts stood there with wide eyes as they watched their still puzzling new host walk further down the hall.

The tiny brunette female waved them to follow and slowly, one by one, they came out of their daze and made their way after the girls. Kyouya was the last to follow, for once. It surprised him how easily a person could let their emotions sway them, especially someone who seemed so strong.

'_She's practically a ticking time bomb sometimes.'_

The group was stopped in front of a black door that had a red, orange, and yellow dragon spray-painted on it. But that wasn't what really caught their attention. What caught their attention was the yellow police tape across the door and over the painting that read. "Danger. Peligro."

Aoi stared at the door tiredly before mumbling, "I always forget about that." She then turned and sheepishly chuckled. "My brother put that up there 3 years ago after another cigarette incident and I've just been too lazy to take it down."

The group visibly paled at the thought of the "cigarette incident" they had played witness to not but moments ago. The hosts understood perfectly well why Sora would put those up.

They flinched as Aoi turned the knob, which clicked loudly in their minds. The door was pushed open and a stream of light poured in, blinding them. _(__**A/N**__: Hatori Bisco likes to do it, so I thought "why can't I?")_

Once their sight cleared, her room was definitely not what they expected.

The room they first walked into was a small gathering room, with a sitting area actually indented into the dark-gray carpeted floor, in the center. It was facing a nice flat screen TV, that was relatively smaller than the one down stairs and it hung from the wall. On a glass table under the TV, sat a PS3 and a Wii with a massive amount of games for both consoles on the shelves underneath it. Kyouya took notice that they were separated by console and alphabetized. The sunlight was currently pouring in from the windows on the high section of the wall that stood directly across from the doorway. Just under the windows, sat a book shelf that stretched from one edge of the wall to the other. It was full of books of all sorts, from manga to fiction novels, to reference books and educational reading. A few picture frames were randomly scattered among the books. On the wall opposite the television was a small stairway that lead to an open level above them and a set of double doors that showed another much smaller room filled with hanging clothes, shelves with drawers, and shelves full of tennis shoes, combat boots, and flats of all shapes and colors. If you couldn't guess, it's a closet.

Upstairs was another room that held a full-size bed on a low platform that was painted black. It was covered in white a black checkered sheets. Small black night stands were attached to either side of the bed with small lamps used to illuminate the room. To the left of the bed, was a door that leads to a normal sized bathroom. And on the right was another large, ceiling to floor, window and a glass computer desk sat in front of window, giving a great view of the city. On the desk sat a small fluorescent lamp, a black 17" laptop that was hooked up to extra memory packs on the floor and papers and notebooks were scattered among the rest of the desk. And I couldn't forget the orange rolling computer chair.

It didn't take long for the entire group to spread out amongst the chaos, leaving both Aoi and Haruhi to stand near the door way as they nosed around Aoi's possessions. Aoi sighed tiredly. _'I knew this was a bad idea.'_

"Wow, Aoi-chan!! I didn't know you were a fan of Abarai Gamma!!" She turned her attention to Kaoru, who was looking through her bookcase.

"What?! Really?!" Hikaru soon joined his brother at going through her novels. "Wow, you have every single novel! The horror stories, the romances, the dramas, the adventures, you even have the short story collections!!! And their all first editions!"

Aoi could only curiously stare at how much Hikaru knew about the novelist.

Kaoru whispered at the now attentive group of hosts. "He's a big fan. He has almost every book, too."

The elder twin glared at his brother as a slight blush started to rise at his cheeks. He elbowed his mirror image before turning his attention back to the bookcase, it was then that one caught his eye. "Hey, I've never seen this one before." He pulled the book out and showed it to his brother.

"Projectiles and Promises? Is that new?"

"This one isn't supposed to be out for another two months……" Hikaru stared in a complete loss before turning to Aoi. "How did you get the novel that hasn't come out yet? Even with our connections, we couldn't get this one!"

Aoi sighed and opened her mouth to speak, only to stop as Kyouya took the book from the red-head's hands and turned to smirk at her. "You're Abarai Gamma, aren't you?"

Glancing around, Aoi noticed that every member of the Host Club now had their attention on her: Tamaki sat reclining on the couch, Mori and Hunny looked down from the upstairs ledge, and of course, the twins and Kyouya stood watching from the bookcase. Haruhi sighed tiredly as she stood next to her cousin.

"How do you know she's Abarai Gamma?" Tamaki asked.

"Because, no one knows who Abarai Gamma is." Kyouya started. "She has never once made a public appearance and keeps to herself. How else do you explain that Aoi has every single novel Gamma has ever written? And why she has a copy of a novel that hasn't even been distributed yet? And if I remember correctly, 'Projectiles and Promises' was the name of the draft Aoi let Haruhi read. She mentioned it the first day we met her."

Aoi watched in silent amusement as the rest of the members suddenly sparked in recollection. _'Took them long enough.'_ The blonde sighed before raising her hands innocently. "Alright, alright, it's true. I am Abarai Gamma. But don't go around telling everybody! There's a reason no one knows who I am. I don't want the attention. It's troublesome." She glared at them from behind her orange glasses as they all nodded in fear.

She sighed as the hosts turned and continued with their business of running around her room. Tamaki jumped up from the couch and made his way upstairs to help Hunny and Mori riffle through her unfinished handwritten works. The twins busied themselves after learning the great revelation that was "Abarai Gamma" with the rest of the novels. And Haruhi, who had gotten tired of standing, forced herself to recline on her cousin's couch with Aoi by her side. Both girls were visibly exhausted.

Kyouya was going to busy himself with her collection of manga before he noticed something that caught his attention. There on her third shelf, right next to her collection of One Piece books sat a picture frame. But it was the actual picture that actually caught his eye.

In the photo sat two young children, near the age of 5. A young girl sat on the branch of a large tree with a cheek ripping grin. She wore a pair of tan shorts that had grass stains as well as a white tee shirt in the same condition. She had soft honey tresses that fell to her shoulders and sparkling azure eyes. A young boy sat in a branch across from her, in a nice set of school uniforms that was starting to dirty with him being in a tree and all. He had short black hair that fell into his onyx colored eyes. He also wore a smile that was weaker than that of the girl's but none the less genuine.

Kyouya stood there staring in complete and utter awe. He couldn't believe it. He was so stuck in his thoughts that he hadn't heard the sound of the front door opening downstairs and Sora yelling for the group to come down for dinner. Nor did he feel that the other presences in the room file out one by one. All except one, who had paused at the doorway realizing that the bespectacled young man wasn't moving.

"Kyouya?" Aoi called out curiously and watched as the boy didn't even flinch. He just stood with his back to her, staring at something on her bookcase. _'Is he staring at my One Piece books?'_

She took a few steps forward until she was capable of looking over his shoulder. It was then that she noticed his gaze was locked on a very familiar picture. All she could was smile sadly before finally speaking. "What's wrong?"

It wasn't her voice that broke him out of his thoughts; it was the feel of her breath along his neck. Slightly startled, the shadow king turned around, mask fully replaced. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

"I said, do you find something wrong with my picture?"

He gulped silently and turned back to face the photo. "Not really. Just that the boy in the picture looks familiar. Do you keep in touch with him?"

Aoi sighed loudly before turning her back to him, which in turned caused him to fully turn in her direction. "No, I don't. When we were young, he……..decided he didn't want to be friends with me anymore."

The bespectacled host bit his lip as he watched her back. "Do you know why?"

He heard her chuckle wryly and she started back for the doorway, him not far behind her. "Not really. And at this point, it's insignificant."

Kyouya faltered in his steps, freezing at the doorway. His mask slipped again as he stared at her retreating back; a look of shock to its place. _'Understandable.'_

He continued to follow her down the stairs, lost in his own thoughts. Not noticing another similar picture a few shelves to the right.

Aoi made her way down the stairs, her brain swirling with so many thoughts, unconsciously knowing that Kyouya was following her. Getting to the foot of the stairs, she noticed the rest of the hosts were standing near the entrance to the alcove, staring at something. Jumping down the last step, she looked up only for her eyes to widen and her usual wild smile to slap itself across her face.

"DAD!!!"

* * *

**A/N: DONE! xD yeah, I'm just overly happy for getting this one out. And yeah......I kinda left you guys hanging. I'm such a sado-masochist. I realized I'm releasing this chapter just in time for the holidays. So Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Merry Kwannza, and to all those who celebrate none of these, Happy Get Gifts Day!! Oh yeah, and I got the idea for her writing alias by naming her after two of my favorite Tite Kubo characters: Renji Abarai, and Gamma Akutabi. LOVE!! Anyways, Italian dictionary time!!**

**"Pronto, blu!": Pronto is a form of saying hello on the phone. As for "blu", it's Sora's nickname for his sister, because her name means Blue.  
****"Come va": means how are you doing?  
"fratello": means brother.**

**Anyways, (I realized I say that alot) hope you guys stick around for the next chapter. Reviews would be lovely.**


	8. AUTHOR'S NOTE!

**PLEASE READ!**

Hello readers!

Surprised to hear from me? Yes, I'm not dead. So let me get on with this very important Author's Note. I have a few things I want to say about my TCOD story.

First of all, I want to say **sorry** to all of you! I know I haven't updated in a very long time, and I'm sure many of you absolutely hate me at this point. Again, I can't apologize enough!

For those of you who have read some of the notes and updates I've posted on my Author's page, you should know I've been dealing with some stuff lately and it's been getting in the way of my writing. I was originally going to post the next update a few months ago but then my laptop died after 5 faithful years and took ALL my work with it. I cannot explain to you guys how pissed I was.

I got a new (and better) laptop and when I was done raving about my unpublished works being completely destroyed, I decided I was going to start over the chapters I lost…..so when I reread what I had so far online, I was completely disappointed in myself. And so now comes the next important part of this note.

**I AM REWRITING THE CHARM OF DYNAMITE COMPLETELY**.

Aoi and the hosts we know and love will still be there, I'm just going to tweak my writing style and change a few things.

Do not be discouraged, faithful readers, for I will return. I love you all for the time you put into reading my work and reviewing. Keep your faith in me, and I'll do my absolute best.

Until then!


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